ECO COLOUR - 6

...results from the Cherries and Raspberries...

The cherries produced a browned pink - quite lovely. And the shibori worked wonderfully well.

And the raspberries were quite pink... but will it last?

These will be set aside for a couple of weeks before being washed and rinsed out to see the final colours produced.

Summer Dyeing continues

The last dyeing I posted was at the beginning of August, opening the lovely jars of 'eco' surprises... I then had the opportunity to go out to our summer cabin alone for a week and do some 'regular' dyeing.

Using my favourite "Alter Ego" dyes on silk and rayon devore scarves, I got some lovely results. All in preparation for fall Art Sales selling silk scarves.

Laying out and sorting the blank white scarves:

Bubbling pots of luscious colour. The left will be green and purple, the right will be golden yellow and lemon yellow:

Some results drying gently in the shade:

Then I was throwing everything into the pots: wool blankets, silk and cotton threads, doilies, linen napkins...

 

 

The final scarf results:

 

 

 

And my helpers out there...
Bluejay -->

Goldfinch -->

and the Hairy Woodpecker-->

ECO COLOUR - 5

Late July and August is CHERRY season here is Calgary, fruit coming in from the Okanogan, British Columbia - my favourite fruit, so I collected lots of stems and pits. Towards the end, the cherries get a little iffy and I could save some of the rotted fruit. So - what do to with it? Dye of course!

Silk scarves wrapped shibori style and ready to dye:

The pot of fabric and fruit cooking away:

I was leaving town the next day, so I just put the whole thing in the cold room and walked away...

But that same afternoon, I got called by a neighbour to come and pick RASPBERRIES, that were falling off the plants. I collected many good ones to eat fresh and make into jam, but I also collected the over-ripe ones in a quart jar, filled it with water, and put it in the cold room until I could deal with it when I returned to town.

But before I could put them away, an afternoon hail storm hit that the Prairies are so famous for...

The most amazing thing about this storm were the clouds - I have never seen ones that look like these before!!!

Babies bums! It was amazing...

And as quick as it came, it blew away:

Hiking in the Rocky Mountains

Although we are not 'hikers' by any means, my husband managed to talk me into getting out to view the wildflowers in Banff National Park. So the middle of August we headed up to Sunshine Meadows...

Situated at an average elevation of 2220m (7300 ft), the meadows straddle the Continental Divide and the boundary between Alberta and British Columbia. The Sunshine Meadows are known as one of the most stunning alpine settings in the Canadian Rockies, surrounded by some of the Rockies highest peaks.

As their brochure reads "wildlife abounds in the meadows, and the brilliance of the summer flowers and autumn larches guarantees spectacular scenery on every visit." I would say their guarantee works. Even though this was 4 hour hike for us, the trekking poles are a wonderful invention that enable one to go further and steeper than they imagine they can!

Rock Isle Lake:

Columbia ground squirrel looking for a handout:

viewpoint overlooking the Simpson River Valley:

It was 'wildflower week', and the alpine wildflowers were in full bloom:

Wabi-Sabi

These three, short sentences on the nature of the universe in the same book make me so happy:

1. All things are impermanent.
2. All things are imperfect.
3. All things are incomplete.

To me, this seems the essence of wabi-sabi. When I read these, it is like I have been given the okay to just be me today, and every day. Sigh, what a relief...

Wabi-Sabi

From the book "Wabi-Sabi: for Artists, Designers, Poets and Philosophers" by Leonard Koren:

“Beauty can be coaxed out of ugliness. Wabi-sabi is ambivalent about separating beauty from non-beauty or ugliness. The beauty of wabi-sabi is in one respect, the condition of coming to terms with what you consider ugly. Wabi-sabi suggests that beauty is a dynamic event that occurs between you and something else. Beauty can spontaneously occur at any moment given the proper circumstances, context, or point of view. Beauty is thus an altered state of consciousness, an extraordinary moment of poetry and grace.”