Folk Fibers Blog / natural dyes
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Station to Station
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It's crazy to think making quilts would be my ticket to a train tour. Back in September I was invited to travel with the Makers yurt, a Levi's artistic contribution to Station to Station, Doug Aitken's latest art project. The Levi's Makers was curated by Jay Carroll and became a collective of artisan's from across the country who sell their handmade goods at speciality Levi's stores. We were on-the-road for a month, the train started in New York with stops in Pittsburgh, Chicago, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Kansas City, Santa Fe, Winslow, Barstow, and Los Angeles, and came to a stop in Oakland on September...
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Natural Dyes - Pomegranates
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Natural fibers dyed with pomegranates harvested in Austin, Texas above: no mordant--pure and earthy below: alum pre-mordant brightens colors creating yellow tones Steeped in history and romance pomegranates have long been cultivated, they're even biblical. I find myself lucky to be living in a place they grow prolifically, they're packed with usefulness and in my case a botanical dye. Overall the pomegranate is an attractive shrub or small tree and is more or less spiny, and extremely long-lived. The fruit is widely praised for the juice, but I'm after the brilliant dye properties great for coloring textiles. The dye properties are found in both the rind...
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Natural Dyes - Osage Orange
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Osage Orange is one of my favorite dye sources for creating a range of golden yellows, metallic and russet golds, as well as soft mossy greens. I usually steer clear of using mordants in my dye process with the exception of yellows. Above all I prefer the soft earthy color results of mordant-free dye baths. In this post I demonstrate how using mordants can be used as a color changer, brighting or darkening protein or cellulose fibers, creating beautiful shifts in color. I find this exciting when working with natural dyes to create my patchwork quilts! Natural fibers dyed with Osage Orange heartwood no mordant--pure and earthy Natural fibers dyed...
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Natural Dyes - Wild Mushrooms
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This was my first experience obtaining color from mushrooms. I have a growing interest in mushroom hunting, so it was only a matter of time the lore of natural color would guide me to collecting them for dyes. This past August I stumbled upon a perfect wet wooded breeding ground for a variety of wild mushrooms. I used rubber gloves to carefully harvest all the mushrooms found on the waterfront of my parents lake house near the Virginia/North Carolina border. Warning, some mushrooms are extremely poisonous, and even after dye and washing, the fabric can still hold dangerous properties that could irritate skin. Stay safe...
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Quilts That Fly in October
Read more →These are my latest quilts using naturally dyed fabrics and hand quilted with the help of my friends Juliette, Monica, and Mercedes. I have gathered inspiration for these quilt patterns from traditional American quilts, singling out a quilt block and creating it on a large scale is reminisent of barn quilts. The colors in these quilts are all acheived using natural dyes such as onion skins, walnut hulls, madder root, osage orange wood, and natural indigo.
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Natural Dyes - Yellow Onion Skins
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Yellow onion skins create a golden range of earthy colors. With a concentrated dye bath and enough time for the fibers to soak, the colors achieved are a combination of red and yellow, usually resting in the middle as an orange. The results radiate warmth and happiness, combining the physical energy and stimulation of red with the cheerfulness of yellow. Protein fibers such as wool and silk, dye deep to medium shades of ochre, creating pigments in the cadmium-orange families. Referencing sienna, burnt orange, pumpkins, terra cotta, and rust. Cellulose fibers such as cotton, hemp, and bamboo dye a range of dark orange to a lighter orange peel, having deep notes of golden-yellow or...
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Natural Dyes - Red Onion Skins
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Red onion skins create a earthy range of colors. Protein fibers such as wool and silk, dye a pale to medium nutmeg brown, with a mix of rosewood, russet and rosy browns. Cellulose fibers such as cotton, hemp, and bamboo dye a range of seashell pinks, with a mix of champagne, pale, and silver pink. Natural dye colors are living colors, they are alive with the life that made them. The dry outer skins of onions can be used for coloring natural textile materials and easter eggs. Red onion skins create a different range of colors than yellow onions skins, so it's important to keep...
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Song of a People
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Christina, Juliet, Me, Ruby Ku, Melba, Chiane, and Ryan took the photo! Today a group of friends helped me tame my over grown indigo garden. It felt great to have the helping hands but it felt even better to be comfortable asking for the help I needed. It was a step in the direction I'm headed with Folk Fibers. I have been moved by the interest and request to teach and share the craft of gardening, natural dyes and quilt making. This positive energy is playing a part in my development and vision for the future, and I strive to offer more workshops and...
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Nui Shibori: Stitch Resist
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I made this stitched resist rabbit many years ago, but I still love it so. Nui shibori includes stitched shibori. A simple running stitch is used on the cloth then pulled tight to gather the cloth before submerging in a dye pot. Stitching affords flexibility and control to create designs of great variety, delicate or bold, simple or complex, pictorial or abstract. This technique allows for greater control of the pattern and greater variety of pattern, but it is much more time consuming. mokume shibori also known as woodgrain
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SHIBORI
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I was introduced to shibori dye methods in college while taking the history of fabric class in the fibers dept at scad. Recently I have been revisiting the techniques. keeping an active indigo dye pot (along a slew of others) at my fingertips promotes the constant activity of testing and experimenting with cloth and color. I love resist dying and when I started studying shibori I found it was just the right sort of sophistication and historical context I was looking for in what I knew before as tie-dye. I don't see the resist dye techniques entering into the crafting of my quilts, for now...