mis·take məˈstāk/...

So I was thinking about this word a lot lately and looked it up for a proper definition.

Here's what I found...

noun

1. 1.

   an action or judgment that is misguided or wrong.

   "coming here was a mistake"

   synonyms:

   error, fault, inaccuracy, omission, slip, blunder, miscalculation,misunderstanding, oversight, misinterpretation, gaffe, faux pas,solecism; More

verb

1. 1.

   be wrong about.

   "because I was inexperienced, I mistook the nature of our relationship"

   synonyms:

   misunderstand, misinterpret, get wrong, misconstrue, misread More

   
   
2. There are many times in life that we here the expression
3. "I made a mistake"
4. or 
5. "that was a mistake"
6. In my wanderings through a creative life I have found many times that I might make these same
7. statements...until now, when I looked up the actual definition.
8. Lets look at the first one, the noun.
9. 'an action or judgment that is misguided or wrong'.
10. Well I can strike that one off since I don't think artistic endeavours can be misguided or wrong.
11. They are experiments.
12. I have been experimenting a lot lately on the science of botanical alchemy or eco printing or 
13. eco dying...whatever you want to call it.
14. Printing on small swatches has given me much insight into the process, which
15. is really what creativity is all about.
16. 
    Eucalyptus print, not so bold and defined as I had hope but lets make some
17. lemonade out of lemons...
18. 
    I find that if something is not quite what I had hoped for, I will let it sit...
19. Somewhere where I glance at it every once in a while until it speaks to me...
20. 
     ...of what it can become...
    
    
    Like this other piece that became a wee pouch...
21. 
    
    
    
     Incorporating an old zipper I had lying around for years that fit perfectly and
    then lined with some vintage velvet I had in my fabric stash...
22. 
    How about this... 
23. 
24. A little arrowhead I found at the beach the other day, the tip broken off.
25. Possibly it was done in the making and the maker tossed it thinking it to be a 'mistake'.
26. Not so!
27. I the fortunate one who found it all these years later!
28. A delight indeed!
29. The second definition could be discussed at length...
30. we may leave that for another time though.
31. Be happy in your experiments...they will always teach you something.

Exploration....

The other day I went out for lunch with the women who help

with the kids garden club and one of them showed us this beautiful

nuno felted scarf eco printed with eucalyptus leaves she made in a workshop.

This is a sample off of the net since I didn't have my camera with me.

Thanks to www.terriekwong.blogspot.ca

Have you ever heard of eco printing?

Basically it's transferring the imprint of leaves and flowers and their

natural dyes onto fabric or paper.

I've experimented with this on paper and hammering leaves between fabric

but had a whole other world opened up to me when I saw the results

from the scarf Lynda made.

So off to the wool shop with Norene (my partner in art crimes)

and while we were talking to Ryan, the owner of Knotty by Nature,

he showed us a scarf very similar to Lynda's...

We then started talking about India Flint.

Eco dyer extraordinaire.

Just so happens that Ryan had one of her books for sale...

Before I knew it the book was purchased and in my bag along with my latest stash of wool!

Today we will experiment with making the scarf and step 2 will be the eco printing

onto said scarves.

Of course I had to try a wee bit of the printing before today so last night I made

up some bundles and steamed them for a few hours...

 Kinda voodoo looking aren't they?

 I left them wrapped until early this morning and like a kid at Christmas

jumped out of bed to see what they had turned into...

 This is the native trailing blackberry which made a really good impression...

 These were some leftover leaves from the flower shop but I don't know the name.

They turned out really nice too...

 Some fall coloured cherry leaves...

 The eucalyptus I used must be a different variety because it didn't

quite turn out how I expected it to...

 Close up of the blackberry leaves...

 ...and the mystery leaves...

 I did these all on some scraps of linen...

So now we have opened up a whole new can of worms to play with!

India's book is full of fascinating explorations into eco dyes and printing

and has already inspired us to take on this new challenge.

There's something so invigorating about discovering yet

another way to create.

One thing leads to another...will post about our further adventures into

the land of wool.

To be continued.