Eco-Dyeing and me.

Last Summer I discovered the joy of Eco-Dyeing.

I'm not really sure how it all began, one day I was dyeing with tea bags and the next Eco-dyeing. I started to make friends on facebook with lovely kind people who have become great friends, always so willing to offer support and advice.

I bought India Flint's book 

Then I started to experiment, at first I had no success but this only made me keener to achieve a print. There was a lot to learn about mordants, the word mordant means to bite. I learnt this was important.......I read and read as much as I could and everyday practiced, this was not difficult as Eco-dyeing is such a joy the excitement and anticipation of untying  a bundle has to be experienced.

I started off like this

I soaked overnight in an old aluminium saucepan some cotton fabric......this was an old sheet cut up, the solution was white vinegar and water.

At this time I did not know printing on silk and wool gives better results :-)

Then I gathered together some small twigs

and leaves from the garden.

Then I started to roll out

Then secured with bands....at first I did not know that the better and tighter you secure your bundle the better contact to print.

Then I placed in my aluminum saucepan of onion skin dye, my wrapped bundles and boiled for 1 hour. I left to cool until the next day.

Here is a selection of prints from last summers experiments

Leaves on silk

On cotton

On Cotton

These prints on cotton were boiled in an aluminum saucepan with a Rhubarb mordant

These are a selection of prints that I stitched into, I made 4 separate collages with them.

 These are prints on card

I printed on gift tags

I used my prints on Rice paper to make a cover for a book

 Water colour paper print with stitch and pressed flowers

Thanks for reading my blog post and give Eco-Dyeing a go it will bring such joy to your creative life.

Love Marilyn xx

Happy New Year everyone 

This is just a short post to say a quick hello
I'm busy working on some new books at the moment and hope to bring you another "how to post" soon!

The images here are from my work on "The Memories of Rosemarie Richter" 
I have been in a very reflective mood recently.........due I think to the start of another new year in my life. My Mother Rosemarie Richter is in her 87th year! It has not been an easy life partly because of her experiences of the war and because she has never had the ability to move on from those years.
If I have learned anything from this........ it is we who choose whether we want to forget or keep feeding those issues, like a cancer that keeps growing until it is all consuming.  

Here are some images of her portrait I created them on Handmade Silk Paper.
Hand stitched with sewing cotton! it was a wonderful lesson in tone and shade while stitching. They have a small amount of graphite on them.

Thanks to all for supporting my new art page Interlaced-Textile Arts on Facebook.

Each stitch is with single thread cotton........the nearest I could get other than using real hair! That I will leave until another time.

Love Marilyn. xx

Making Paper

Hi everyone, this post is about making paper......from paper!

It is a great way of using old scrap pieces of paper and envelopes, this post covers the basic preparation.

You will need.

Old towels
Newspapers
J cloths
Large container for water and pulp
Old hand blender
Jug
Access to water and sink
And of course your torn paper


First of all you need to tear into very small pieces  your paper, I have included some brown paper to create a nice creamy beige colour.

You will need to pour some hot water onto the paper and leave for around 30 minuets to soak.

Once soaked take a small amount of the paper and place into a plastic jug.

Add some extra liquid to cover your paper.

Using an old hand blender pulp the paper pieces.

Add the pulp to a container with warm water in....see photo above.

Swoosh around with your hand, repeat this process until you have a good amount of paper pulp in your container, the more pulp the thicker your paper.

Using a Deckle ( you can make this using an old picture frame and some net stretched across and stapled to the back) Slide under your pulp.

Then lift slowly letting the excess water run off, be careful not to tip your Deckle at too sharp an angle! you do not want your pulp sliding off.

Lift out slowly and turn out onto J cloth.

Dab the back of the Deckle to remove excess water

Then lift frame slowly releasing your sheet of paper. Put all your sheets of paper to dry, if you are going to emboss your paper needs to be slightly damp.

Once my sheets were ready .....using a small table top printer (borrowed from my friend) I layered up the paper with lace and crochet.

These are a couple of embossed dry pieces, they can be torn up and used to create pages for artist books. If you are careful depending on thickness of paper you can also stitch into them.

This little book has added fabric to compliment the pages of embossed paper.

Here you can see the embossed piece, I have given it the lightest of touch with a white oil pastel.

A big thank you to my lovely friend Coral Spencer for demonstrating while I took the photos and the use of her printer to emboss.

Have fun.

Marilyn xx

Sketchbook play

Hello everyone

At last I have finally managed to blog!!!
This post is the one I wanted to bring  you last week.

 This information comes from Sue Dove title "Snipping and Sliding" Collage for Textiles.

This information comes from www.workshopontheweb.com

Workshop on the web also has a Facebook page.

Here are a few more images from my sketchbook.

For all of you who asked how it was done I do hope this helps.

With thanks to Maggie Grey.....Workshop on the web.

And Sue Dove.

Until next time.....when I hope to bring you my handmade Silk Paper making.

Love Marilyn xx