Isn't She grand?!...

                      

                         I went for a visit/workshop at my friend Gillian's house the other day.
(oh, and yummy apple crisp and tea!)

She's a textile artist extraordinaire!

     She makes gorgeous slippers and throws (not to mention a million other things!)

out of up cycled wool sweaters and blankets...

She also does Eco dying with leaves.

This is a printing process using leaves on fibre and adding mordants.

If you want a more detailed idea of the process have a look at this website.
So the first thing you have to do is to soak your fibre in pure vinegar overnight.
We were using 12" wide strips of washed and shrunk pure wool blankets...

Next we places our leaves where we wanted....

We used feather and round eucalyptus (the grey green leaves), cotinus (the round purple leaves),

 alder cones and some native trailing blackberry...

Look at these sweet heart shaped eucalyptus!...

Next step is to roll up your bundle tightly and tie it well with string...

You can do it nice and neat or randomly. I'll show you why later...

All bundled up and ready for a nice hot bath...

Into the boiling water bath we go...if you add a piece of iron it affects the outcome of the colours.

We left our bundles boiling for about 3 hours...

Peeps break!

(Gillian's gorgeous boy!)

Out it comes, looking like a big grub...the bundle, not Peeps...

So have a look at this...

The feather eucalyptus leaves an amazingly distinct orange print.

The cotinus and native blackberry left beautiful purple dyes...

 and the alder cones left very dark brown, heavy imprints of itself...

Isn't nature fantastic?!

All of the incredible mysteries she holds...why orange from grey green leaves?

And purple from bright green leaves?

The faint round shape is from the round eucalyptus leaves that didn't really print,

 although I have seen many examples of it printing the same colour as the feather eucalyptus.

Could just be a different variety.

I really love the patterns and textures of the tie marks...

The second piece I dyed had much more iron in the pot and so made these beautiful

prominent patterns from the bundling string...

This piece I only used the feather eucalyptus...

I absolutely love the results!

I may add some embroidery or some needle felting to it...

For some reason I get a 'Japanese feel' to this...

May be a bag...may be a wall hanging...may be a pillow cover...but lovely just the same.

 The world around us is full of unending gifts and surprises.

I am blessed to be surrounded by creative, kindred spirits 

and the boundless offerings of nature herself.

Thanks Gillian for sharing yours!

You can find Gillian on Facebook...here and here