Natural dyeing Archives - Page 4 of 6 - Jane Mercer Felt Artist

The secrets at the fascinating Peak alum works

What a fascinating place Peak alum works is. ! Well worth a visit. Currently being updated. Please come back soon Alum was discovered here in 1640 and the works were build to process the calcined ore and to export the alum flour. The remains are above a beautiful bay shown here at low tide , with Robins Hood bay in the background . The invisible quarries of the Peak Alum Works Peak Alum works were built because of the locally sourced shale rock which could be quarried and then processed to make alum. Today there is virtually no sign of the of the quarries that once changed the face the of the hillsides. They have been covered by gorse and bracken and have disappeared into the landscape. The Peak Alum works were operational from 1650 to 1860 when a cheaper route to alum was discovered. The shale from the…

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21/08/2016

Alum / Mordant / Natural dyeing / Yorkshire

Just on my doorstep

Since I moved back to the UK I have been pondering a theme for a series of local felt pieces. I now live on the edge of the North York moors a really beautiful area with a fantastic coast line which has a really interesting industrial heritage. In the photo above you can see the costal town of Staithes with the Boulby cliffs in the background. My first thoughts on a theme were something related to the mining of ironstone in the area and the subsequent development of the steel industry, which has sadly recently closed. Whilst researching I came across another older industry that is far more directly related to my work. I discovered that during the reign of Henry VIII , a local source of Alum which was critical to the textile industry as a mordant was sought in order to break the papal monopoly. This was in the 16th…

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07/08/2016

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

Natural dyeing / Woolfest

Planting my dye garden

At woolfest in 2015 I bought three dye plants , Madder, Ladies Bedstraw and Rubekia from Fiery Felts. Here there are with all my other woolfest goodies. At the time I had nowhere to plant them so they stayed in their pots at my daughters. When I returned to the UK late 2015 and I looked for a spot in my garden where I could make a dye garden . I found a place which was nice and sheltered with a house wall at the back. The big snag was it was totally overtaken by vinca. This is a most dreadful invasive plant in my opinion , I have no idea why I ever planted it in the first place. So for the first few months of 2016 I attempted to kill the Vinca by covering it with some old carpets. I then dug it all out, well I tried hard to…

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10/07/2016

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

British wool fibres / Eco Dyeing / machine stitching / Natural dyeing / Stitches / Wet felting

Felting ready for dyeing

I have been preparing a couple of felts for dyeing. The inspiration is some rocks. Thinking through a plan in my note-book for the felts and fibres. And laying out ready for felting. The pieces all use Blue faced Leicester fibre. I laid out some dark and some light fibre on the back and felted the pieces. I stopped felting when the pieces where about 20% shrunk , to check them and to add some hand stitching. If you look very closely you can see stitching on the fabrics. After final felting., they were ready for some more hand stitching and some machine stitching. Here the stitching is more visible , with the lovely variation you get , when you combine all the different stitch techniques together. Ready now for the dye bath.

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25/05/2016

British wool fibres / Fibres / Natural dyeing / Wet felting

Felt and dye fibre tests

I have had on my to do list for a long time to test soy, flax and jute. By test I mean , felt them and the dye the felt and see what happens. This week I eventually got round to some testing. I actually tested sisal,linen top, flax, jute yarn , cotton knitted yarn and nettle. I am not sure where the soy fibres have got to in the confusion resulting from my move. One day they will turn up. First I made prefelts with the fibres. Here is a sample cut from each prefelts which have been made with Blue faced Leicester fibres. At this stage the different fibres are quite hard to see , but I hoped that with dyeing they would become more visible. I decided to do my test with onion skins. Simple to do and I love the colour . Sisal and linen , still…

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22/05/2016

Natural dyeing / Textiellink / Wet felting

Worldwide colours of felt

I am delighted that a piece of mine will be appearing in Worldwide colours of felt which is due for publication in June by Textiellink. I am even more delighted that the piece that was chosen was dyed with madder. There are pictures of felt works from over 500 artists from 40 countries in the book. With this good news it seems an ideal opportunity to look back at how my piece was made. First I laid out white merino on a resist. Then used more resists to add wings and I also added cords. The finished vessel was difficult to dry and so I slung it in the garden used a foam roller, an old broom handle and lots of gaffer tape along with skewers to curls the cords. Here it is straight out of the dye pot . I had to tied it up , to make it fit…

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02/05/2016

Eco Dyeing / jewellery / machine stitching / Mordant / Natural dyeing / Wet felting

Eucalyptus

I have naturally dyed a number of large felt pieces but never tried dying jewellery until this week , it has also been my first experience of dyeing with eucalyptus as I was recently given some leaves. I have made lots of jewellery , mostly brooches , and I intend to dye them in matches in different colours. This time it was the turn of eucalyptus. Here is all the jewellery being made. A lot of circles cut out . Various fabrics stitching and resists added. The collection drying in the sunshine . A choose three to dye on this occasion , adding some cotton and silk machine stitching before dyeing. Looking good but without a lot of difference in the colours between the different fibres so I decided to modified the pieces with iron. The iron really changes the colours. The silk has become a lot more coppery , and the linen…

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24/04/2016