A Little Bit of Colour

I have taken the tapestry out of the garden. It has gained a little bit of colour from the hollyhock flowers.

I'm not sure if that colour will stay. If it rains in the near future I may find out.

The tapestry is currently hanging on the clothes line. Rain is forecast for Tuesday, so I may leave it there till then. That will be the test, whether the colour stays in during rain.

Then I  am going to put it in the compost heap. We have some new greenery in it at the moment, so that may have an effect.

The compost heap is covered to keep the forever hungry dog out! 

The compost is only at about 40 degrees Celsius at the moment. But that is warm enough to do something (she says, hopefully). It sometimes gets up to 60 degrees. That would be interesting.

There has been some family discussion about whether or not it will smell after being in the compost, so it may have to be washed, which may get rid of any colour also.

It is definitely still a work in progress!

Hydrangeas and Christmas

It is an interesting date again - 12/12/16.
Not much has been happening, in terms of textiles. The tapestry is still in the garden but the weather has been much the same. Warm to hot days, especially in the sun. The tapestry is in shade for a lot of the day, lying under the hollyhock leaves. More flowers are falling but not much is happening in terms of colour for the tapestry.

But the hydrangeas are getting ready to burst into colour - something that happens every Christmas.

I also took some photos of the grass that we have had in our garden for ever! It is one of my favourite plants. I am not sure exactly what it is, I think it is a grass from South Africa. But that could be totally wrong.

The leaves are gorgeous and I really must see if I can use them for a design one day.

The hibiscus is gorgeous too. I have read that they are related to the hollyhocks. So I suppose I could use them for dyeing. But I think the colour would not be particularly strong, so I haven't bothered so far.
I am collecting some of the hollyhock flowers, just in case I decide to use them. I am not pulling them off the plant, just picking them up from the ground.
As you may be able to tell, I am thinking about textiles a bit but not doing much.

Continuing on.

I noticed the date: 12/12/16, so had to blog.
Nothing of much interest has occurred. I have left my little tapestry piece in the garden, under the hollyhocks. Some flowers fell on it and it was damp in the morning, due to the dew. More flowers have fallen but they have dried out as it was hot today.

But there is a little colour from the petals. They are also tending to disintegrate in the heat, and with handling, so that may be an issue.

It is supposed to be hot again tomorrow but there is rain forecast for a couple of days hence, so I will try to be patient and not interfere with the process in the meantime. It is quite possible that the tapestry will get wet as the household gardener might water the plants. Not a natural element I suppose, but still water. Just not rain.

Beginnings of change

I left my tapestry out overnight for two nights (so far). It was quite windy, so I laid a bit of wood on top to stop it blowing away. It also rained a bit. So it is lying under the mulberry tree, despite there not being many berries at the moment.

Obviously there are a few, or birds eating them, as there are some purplish stains on it. Not sure how colourfast it will be. Suppose it doesn't really matter as I have no intention of actually washing the piece, unless it becomes absolutely necessary due to circumstances beyond my control - i.e., a bad smell from the compost heap, when it eventually gets there. Whatever happens, it won't be a piece that gets a lot of use and therefore needs frequent washing.

Too Slow!

I noticed that our hollyhocks had grown very tall this year, probably due to the rather wet spring we have just had.
I thought I would tie them up so they wouldn't blow over.

So I went out this morning with the cut bits of the warp that I collected, now that I have cut off my small tapestry.
But I was too late for two plants!

I pulled off the flowers that had opened and mourned the many that had not developed yet.

I must admit, it isn't all bad. I was starting to wonder what I was going to do with all those flowers. Now I have much less stress.

I have been collecting them as I couldn't bear to see them just go to waste, but I don't think I have used up all of last year's flowers. Amazingly, the dried up, desiccated flowers still produce colour. I just have to get myself motivated to dye some more fabric - and then think about what I might do with it.

I just could not not have texture!

I missed yet another interesting date last week, 4/12/16. And there is another coming soon, 8/12/16. But I am going to post today anyway, in case I forget tomorrow.

I have made my small white(ish) tapestry. I was going to practise even weaving, keeping my edges straight, etc. But I just couldn't bring myself to do that - I really like texture.

So I introduced some knobbly yarn I had. I don't know what it is made of, so my experiment is not going to be particularly scientific. But then, I am only doing for interest, not a real scientific enquiry.

And I was going along ok with the straight edges but then must have lost concentration for the last 3rd of the piece. It comes in on the right - always on the right.

Actually, the pulling in doesn't seem so bad in this picture, maybe I managed to pull it into shape a bit.

It is currently 'resting' on the loom, prior to being cut off tomorrow. Then I will put it under the mulberry tree, to be exposed to The Elements - including some fruit.

The plan is to leave it out in the open for a while and see what happens. We are currently having a fair bit of sun and warm weather. Then I will put it in the earth, in the compost heap. So that will be The Elements - sun/fire, earth, wind/air, water/rain (if we have any in the near future. Actually, it is supposed to be raining in a couple of days).

So  you can all look forward to some wonderful  pictures.

Something new for me.

I was going to blog on the interesting date, 16/11/16, but I didn't have anything interesting to say!
Now it is the 24th - hmm, maybe my life isn't that interesting at the moment.

Anyway, I am working on a small tapestry at the moment, based on the idea of The Four Elements. I am not sure my image is going to work. As usual, I had an idea and started before I had really worked it all out. So my image was a lightly coloured pencil thing (I used two images from 123RF, a copyright image place, if you pay for the images.)
Then I started weaving and instantly began with bright colours! So I am having to make colour decisions as I go, as the cartoon is only a vague suggestion of what I want(ed).

I found that I had woven a small section and didn't like how I had done it. I wanted to change the colours slightly, make them stronger. It is a curving piece and I would have had to pull out some of my weaving to get to the piece I didn't like. I have pulled out more on this piece than I have EVER pulled out in one tapestry and that may have influenced me in my decision to just pull out the offending part and see if I could fix it without having to pull out all the other bits.

So I pulled out the bits that were at the top, lifted some side bits to get at the curve and then pulled it out.

Then I used a tapestry needle to 'sew' the new colour in. It seems to have worked, probably because it was a very small section and didn't need a lot of manoeuvring.

I am not confident that the final piece is going to be altogether successful. So I am considering making a very simple piece, maybe just one colour. Then I can put it out in the weather, bury it in the compost heap and maybe even burn part of it. That should cover the four elements - water (rain - we are having plenty of that at the moment, maybe I had better hurry before summer eventually arrives); air (wind);  earth (compost heap); and fire (could be the heat from the compost, the sun or just a candle).

I'll wait to see how the first one goes. It seems a lot of work to weave a piece and then let the elements have their way on it. But it would definitely suit the theme. But I would have to hurry to finish it, so that the elements will have time to work on it before it is due to be handed in to my tapestry group.

I am even thinking of using different weft yarns, maybe wool, cotton and linen, to see how they react to the elements. It might make the actual weaving a bit more interesting too. Not that I am definitely going to do it.