Eco Dyeing Archives - Page 2 of 3 - Jane Mercer Felt Artist

Why am I building an unique scrap hoard?

I never thought I would be building a scrap hoard with all my thread scraps and felt scraps and then reusing them. When I first started natural dyeing, I stitched the felt before dyeing but I did not cut off all the loose ends. They were left until the piece was dyed and them tidied up. At this point I started saving the excess threads and sometimes adding an extra stitch or two with the small amounts of spare thread. This was not very satisfactory as I was so very limited in the amount of thread. So I quickly started making some extra dyed threads by adding small hanks of cotton and silk threads into the dye bath with my felt pieces. I saved these yarn scraps made during this process. This was the start of my scrap hoard. Early this year started dyeing separately all the constituent parts of my felt…

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10/06/2017

Eco Dyeing / Natural dyeing

Contributing as a maker to the Ethel Mairet Dye project

Ethel Mairet was a weaver and a natural dyer. In 1916 she wrote a book about natural dyeing. In the book's introduction, she complained that since the advent of the coal based dyes the knowledge of natural dyes had been lost. Coal based dyes were introduced around 1850. This was in 1916 ! She also stated that both natural and chemical dyes fade. But when natural dyes fade they produce paler shades of the original colour. Chemical dyes, she claimed, fade to different colours, generally bad ones. Her book and her work are being celebrated by an exhibition at the Ditchling museum of art and craft. The exhibition is called " Contemporary makers celebrate Ethel Mairet's legacy. " I am one of the contemporary makers. As a contemporary maker, I have to dye a skein of fibre using natural dyes. I can use either a recipe of Ethel's or my own…

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29/01/2017

Eco Dyeing / Natural dyeing / Wet felting

Why natural dye records are important to me

When I first stepped into the world of natural dyes, I kept no records I just winged it. I have really learned from my mistakes. As I embark on a new batch of dyeing so thought I should go back and look at my natural dye records - good and bad - to see what they could tell me. It was in 2013 that my youngest daughter gave me Jenny Deans book on natural dyeing. This book became slowly my bible. In May of 2014, I was attracted by a huge mass of blooming dandelions and thought that maybe that would make some lovely dye stuff. Let's try it! Armed with Jenny's book of recipes I set off to dye some silks and cotton fabric. I never gave a thought to keeping some natural dye records. Not one thought. In fact in 2015 one year later I wrote, against a small sample…

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22/01/2017

British wool fibres / Eco Dyeing / Natural dyeing / Wet felting

Time for me to have a radical new natural dye process

When I first started using natural dye material I made all white felt pieces containing other fabrics and fibres and then I dyed the felted textile. I have decided I need to radically change my natural dye process. My original all in one natural dye process My all in one process gives a lovely range of connected shades. Everything has been dyed with the same plant material. Lovely but quite limited. Sadly I have also come to the conclusion that it makes boring pieces. There is not enough light and shade or colour variation to make the pieces exciting. Shame. My other reason to change I inadvertently developed two felting methods. One method for pieces that I planned to be naturally dyed and one for pieces made with pre-dyed materials. The felt method I prefer to use is the one I used with the pre-dyed materials. But I really want…

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08/01/2017

Eco Dyeing / Natural dyeing / Wet felting / Wool

How I forage for beautiful natural dye materials

The collection of natural dye materials moves with the seasons. You must harvest fruit when it is are ripe and flowers as they bloom. Harvesting opportunities arise quickly and are short-lived. It is not always possible for me and maybe for you to dye straight away. So I store the dye material away ready for a dyeing day. I have been collecting for quite a while ! In fact I can't really stop myself when the opportunity presents itself. Except I make it a rule only to harvest any natural dye plant material if there is an abundance of the plants , flowers or berries. If I can only find one if two plants , I just walk away. Harvesting lichens for natural dyeing Last week in the UK the weather was windy and wet. This week was cold and dry. As I walked in the woods on Tuesday and there…

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11/12/2016

Eco Dyeing / Wet felting

How to construct a unique wet felting studio

Choose a location Where to build my wet felting studio? The location of my studio choose me! When the builders built my house, which was on a corner, they built the garage at an angle to the house. They built a small utility room to connect the house to the garage. This left a corner which 50 years later was the ideal corner to build my wet felting studio. Well actually it was the only corner ! If ou would like more information on why I choose to build here read A little corner Design the layout So what would you need in a wet felting studio ? Which also will be used for natural dyeing ! I would need a sink a water resistant floor Good lighting Felting tables A sewing table Lots of storage This was the felt studio vision !!! Building Great builders are hard to come by…

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23/10/2016

Creative strength training / Eco Dyeing / Stitches

Never to old to learn!

With no space to felt or dye I need some alternative creative outlets. I need to learn something new. Stitching is a good calming task , one that has been recommended to me . I am slowly stitching a piece in orange and greys that's coming on well , very slowly though. I have quite a number of Eco dyed pieces , which I have looked at and wondered what next. That's actually a bit strange for me, because normal I am good at making decisions, in fact I sometimes get caught out by my snap decisions. But I think here I will wait my time until something tells me where to cut or stitch these beauties. I am also knitting, but then I am always knitting . Only one thing on the go at the moment , this beautiful sweater , but in my case in purple. Not the easiest…

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09/10/2016

Eco Dyeing / Mordant / Natural dyeing / Uncategorized

My First solo attempt at Eco dyeing

Following on from the fantastic Ecodyeing workshop I went on , I decided I would try and put what I learnt into practise with plants from my own garden. First I made up a dye bath with Elderberry leaves and stems. I think it would have been better if I had not included the woody stems , as I felt they were just taking space and not really contributing. I made fours bundles, one silk noil, two from mordanted cotton and one from a piece of felt that had previously been dyed with alder. Here are three of them waiting to be untied. My results are not very fantastic , but it was only my first attempt. This is a cotton piece with a copper rod , quite bright greens , from the copper I think and lots of blotches from the onions pieces. Here the piece dried. One of the cotton…

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17/07/2016

Eco Dyeing / Natural dyeing / Wet felting / Woolfest

Dyeing and colour balance

A number of weeks ago I made two pieces of felt to dye and decided to use the last of the flowering hawthorn in my garden . The flowers are so delicate. After dyeing there was some nice colour variation across the pieces . It's not very dramatic and I thought more colour contrast was needed, so I modified some areas with copper. This is where the colour balance problems with my camera started to become obvious. The same pieces , changed orientation , looking completely different colours , when photographed on different backgrounds. The truth , in my opinion , not as yellow as the white background , but significantly darker than the wood background. Apart from this I thought further differentiation was still needed so I modified a part of each with iron. Now I felt I'd gone to far , but there is no turning back unfortunately . Finally…

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03/07/2016

Eco Dyeing / Natural dyeing

Wonderful workshop

What a wonderful workshop I have had this week at Art van go with Eco-printer Fabienne Dorsman-Rey . Fabienne knowledge ,generosity and enthusiasm was exceptional. I went to explore how I could use Eco-printing in my felt making and have come away inspired to learn more about my local plants and their properties and to continue my voyage of discovery into natural dyeing incorporating Eco-printing. In very difficult to describe in words everything that happened during the workshop , but we learnt about wrapping a bundle, mordants and modifiers , the effects of metals and plants that can be used for printing. We also were shown some of Fabienne's beautiful work and the stories behind each piece. Just a taste of some of the beautiful prints made. My first bundles Some of Fabienne's beautiful work My favourite piece that I printed. A piece that I stitched before printing , nice but I think I…

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19/06/2016