Sew it's been along time... heh see wat I did thar?

It's been hectic these past few years and hopefully I can start to update this more regularly soon, along with updating the side widgets.

For now here's a picture:

Wireworking Jewelry

On August 29th and 30th I had a wire working jewelry class.

I learned all sorts of different ways to bend and curl wire around pliers.
I made a sampler necklace from some of the stuff we learned.
Samples: Coils, S-hook, jump rings, wrapped loop, caged bead, love knot, and spirals. The glass beads where from my teacher, Carol Holaday. Wire gauge was a mix of copper to get a feel for them. Mainly used 18.

Yesterday, I started and finished a bracelet and two earrings.
Beads where bought at Michaels. The picture doest show how pretty they are. They are black shell beads, but they look blue and gray on top of black. Wire was 24 gauge silver colored copper wire.

Home Dyeing

On the last day of class we found some unmarked wood ships, and tossed a few into a few small cups of water. Water in one cup turned a yellow-orange, and another turned a dark red wine color almost instantly. We guessed the orange one was osage orange and the wine colored was brazil wood. So students went and grabbed a bunch for dyeing at home, I grabbed an ounce of each.


Yesterday I tested out the brazil wood. I also tried a vinegar after bath.
The pre-after bath had some pretty purples and a burgundy. The after bath muted all the colors. I'm also not sure if I did the after bath correctly.


I will try to get scans or pictures of some of the actual yarn when I get a chance.

Last Day of Spinning and Dyeing Class

Yesterday was the last day of dyeing class. We had a pot luck, final, and more dyeing.

We had another two pots of indigo and one more pot of cochineal. One Indigo pot exploded and nobody knew how and how to avoid it for next time. I had put some cotton (93%)/spandex(7%) sock yarn in the indigo pots, I think I over died it about 6 times, but it didn't come out to be the dark blue I really wanted, which other ladies got.

The cochineal pot came out very lovely yesterday too. Really wish I put in a sample and/or got a picture for that pot.

Other dye pots
Alkanet - dull green and brown, neutral
Black Cherry Berry Tea from Celestial Seasonings - dull greens, browns, yellow
Tomato Vines - dingy yellow
Kamala - I'm not sure what part of the plant is used for the dye stuff. - orange and brown
Jamaica - Bright red - dies like KoolAid

Home Dyeing

Dye pots 7/26:
Blueberries - frozen - cool browns
Cranberries - dried - light tan-salmon
Wild Blackberries - fresh - purples, browns with a tint of purple

Cranberries

Wild Berries

Dye pots 7/27:
Rosemary - fresh sprigs - greens

Week 5 of Spinning and Dyieng Class

Dye pots at school, 7/25:
Madder - Root - Salmons and browns. Our book showed red, purple and orange.
Sanderswood - browns
Oxalis - dingy yellow
Annatto - seed - bright orange and rust colors. This seed is used to color cheddar cheese.
Red Cabbage - pale blue and green. Class thinks it didn't get hot enough or the bath wasn't acidic enough.

Dye pots at home, 7/25:
Cedar - bark - pale, dull tans and browns
Sycamore - bark - gold/brown
Bougainville - fresh bracts (the colorful part) - yellow and green. I used red bracts and the water was bright red-orange.
Flowering Plum Tree - fresh leaves - pretty dark green and some purple-green colors
KoolAid - Black Cherry - dark red, Grape - almost black, Lemonade - yellow, Orange - orange, Pink lemonaide - light pink

Bougainville
Flowering Plum
Sycamore I think, could be the cedar

Home Dyeing

Since I missed the second class and there have been outings that have taken away from dyeing time, so yesterday I tried to fill in some of the gaps that are needed in our sample book that is due at the end of summer semester.

Turmeric - Root, powdered - Yellows and browns
Chamomile - Fresh and dried - yellows and browns
Green plum tree leaves - fresh - greens
Walnuts - Dried husks - nice range of browns
KoolAid - Tropical Punch - Deep red