Summer details

Working in the middle of nowhere, you have to use whatever is around as props.

For example, my best model - my dog Ceilidh:

and my drying apparatus:

Such are the hardships of having a hideaway in the woods... (that is still under repair from the 9 foot deep flood waters that went through seven years ago!)

Summer dyeing fun... continued

I have also been doing a lot of Eco Dyeing while out at the cabin. The prairie temperatures are usually +5c warmer than in town and it makes for great solar cooking!

Wrapping my silk scarves around flowers or leaves or tea or onions skins and using different metals as mordants (to enhance colours that are extracted), exciting results are obtained in lovely natural muted colours...

BEFORE...

 

AFTER...

  

Earl Grey tea bags after my morning cuppa gives a great grid...

Dried red rose petals from 30 years of anniversary roses given to me by my husband...

Hollyhock petals...

An interesting combination of different elements, probably never to be replicated no matter how hard I tried!

Just loving those eco colours!

And a huge thank you out to my special guest photographer for this opening session of scarves - Karen Roland, who was out visiting and got to see the unveiling in action!

Summer dyeing fun!

I have been in town for only 3 days this whole month of August, with most of my time spent at our cabin in a coulee on the Albertan Prairies. But out there I have been doing a lot of dyeing of silk scarves!

Even though it was 30c out, I sacrificed and stood over a pot of boiling water watching magic happen...

When I got home I laid them all out on the back deck in their colourways... in each pot I had from 2 to 4 different scarves (silk velvet or silk rayon or solid silk). Look carefully at the piles and see if you can identify which is which.

But my favourite part of all this was that I had a new dye - black - that I used for the backgrounds and got some great colour combinations to go with it. I was very happy with all of my results!

London in May - street art, part 2

If you're lucky, you come across some of the artists more than once...

Roa is a street artists from Belgium who has created large-scale black and white animals across the streets of east London.

From about.com “Roa’s fine draftsmanship sets him above other street artists and I particularly admire the vivid sense of life that he imparts to his creatures, which transfix you with their wide eyes. The anatomical detail of these animals is lovingly achieved, yet they are unsentimental portraits of feral beasts that demand respect, resisting our simple affection. Their looming scale and piercing gaze can be challenging – charged with tension, their eyes always follow you.

For the most part, Roa places his animals in unloved, unrecognised corners of the cityscape that are the natural home for scavengers and vermin. But once these spaces are inhabited, the creatures become the familiar spirits of their locations, living embodiments of these places, and our relationship with them parallels our feelings about the streetscape itself. Their powerful presence no longer permits us to remain indifferent.”

 

the background is roughed out in whitewash, then the image is drawn with black spray paint (detail)...

Ben Eine has spray-painted huge letters on shutters across Hoxton and Shoreditch for many years. He is less secretive than other street artists although he has a background as a graffiti artist. He now reckons he's too old to run away so often creates art on walls with permission as well as selling in galleries.

on Ebor Street, facing each other - are you 'pro' or 'anti'?

under a bridge

Stik has created large distinctive stick figures across east London.

We even managed to find a Banksy, at the Cargo Beer Garden on Rivington Street. Titled "His Master's Voice"

And just great artists...

close-up of above...

and some are just social commentaries. Not sure who does these street people but there are quite a few, peering out at you from unexpected places...