Eostre

equinox morn

This weekend the Spring Equinox came and gave us some much needed sunny weather.  The energies of this festival are perfect for cleansing the heart and mind.  Negativity and sorrow are banished from the house with a sweep of the besom.

I love walking through leazes park early in the morning when its quiet and still.  I feed the ducks and swans (swans can be really vicious!) and sit with the rising sun on my face for a minute or two!

ethical extravaganza

On saturday I had a stand at the Ethical Extravaganza.  It was organised by Daisy Green and held in the student uni at Newcastle Uni, all funds raised went to Dans fund for burns.

My Stand at the Ethical EXtravaganza

I was promoting the use of natural dyes, and everyone was really interested and I hopefully got a few customers for Pure Tintoria.  Alison from Pure Tintoria has been a star giving me loads of advice and sending me some dyes so that I could show people.

natural dye extracts

natural dye bark

silk jersey dyed with caspian in an immersion bath (no mordant)

After dark there was a fashion show, featuring the best of the regions sustainable designers

fashion show

working 9 to 5

Today i have been visual researching for my final project….i started looking at illustrators to get some inspiration.

Jenny Hart illustrates using stitch, according to her my space page she is 96!?! according to her website she was born 1972… she certainly doesn’t look 96.  She uses stitch to make comtemporay embroideries of famous people. This fab embroidery of  Miss Dolly Parton is my favourite.

dolly parton by jenny hart

Sarah Beetson is another favourite of mine i love her use of colour and mixed-media

oo la la

Mmmmmmmmmm

Bonjour

At the beginning of the month we went to Paris with Uni. We were over there for Indigo a textile trade show…last year I worked the stand all week so this year i chillaxed and shopped.  It was a shame the pound was so week though, as it made everything so expensive- I just love paying £5 for a cup of tea!!!

I went to a lovely haberdashery on the rue de Jour called la droguerie and I got lots of little charms and fastenings. The lady who served me was a star and said that i didn’t have to pay for out of stock items; she would sent them to me…free of charge!  I’ll definatley be going back next year.

I also purchased a rather risque Frank Miller print; its an advert for Molly’s escort service in Sin City. It is going to cost a fortune to get framed, but i love the simple colour block image. . . .and i’ve always had a thing for Madames ever since i saw Dolly Parton and Burt Reynolds in Best Little Whore House in Texas!

All in All it was a good week….i love paris….can’t wait to go back.

cleopatras needle

moulin rouge

ethical extravaganza

I am busy making display products for the ethical extravaganza. They are all dyed with plant extracts and hopefully we can generate lots of interest in this eco friendly medium.  I get all my extracts from Pure Tintoria,  Alison who is the owner has been a darling giving me lots of advice and support, so thanks a muchly to her.

daisy green

Daisy Green ethical magazine has been launched. The magazine went live and its looking good, its packed with all manner of eco/ethical/sustainability goodies and information on companies and products. There will also be regular give aways and swishing events.

The charity for the night was MAG, their representative Lisa French was going on the catwalk in a little thing i whipped up out of MAG flyers, they were really stiff and i had to staple them together. There was a teeny problem when we got there; as there was a huge step up to the runway, lisa is five foot nought and the dress went down to her ankles.  A quick trim with the scissors sorted it out and she made it up there.

here comes the sun?

What is with the weather today, I went for a run this morning and it was gorgeous sunshine. I thought we had finally said goodbye to winter, so I had a spring clean.  Then came the snow, so i curled up with a hot chocolate and read fashion babylon for the umteenth time,  it got me in the mood for project runway……stella was eliminated; good! hope Suede goes next.

I thought id look through some old holiday photos to remind me of summer.  Here is one of Cayo Blanco island just off Cuba; I can feel the heat.

PS

I am gettin into bad habit of saving drafts of posts to edit and publish later and then not doing it. I will be publishing all saved posts today so the ones following this will be a review of the last few weeks

natural dye update

Its been a few weeks since my last blog and I have been shamed seeing the blogs of my fellow students! …

Faye Gosvenor is an excellent artist and I wish I could paint half as good…..

Sophie Bartesch her last project was lengths of velvet devore with a quite traditional feel…so I can wait to see what shes going to do with her imagery and colors for this project as they are young and contemporary…….

I’ll update with other students as they gets their blogs up and running……………

As for my work i’ve been experimenting with discharge effects on the natural dyes.  My initial plans were to use the designs for bags but in doing that I have limited myself  (once again! will I ever learn) so I have re-evaluated and looked at what other possibilties the designs could be used for.

Looking at fashion, I was inspired by Emma Cooks S/S 09 collection.  I like the way she has used leather and PVC along with lightweight silk fabrics.

This was the shape of bag I was trying to get…. Its dis-heartening when you see something that you were thinking of doing and you find its already been done!!  But I will do it with my colors and development and with a little more embellishment………

happy 2009

Happy New Year to everybody who isnt a pagan (our new year is 31stoct/1stnov)

Now that the holidays are over its time to get motivated and get back to work!

First i must go up where the fields are green and collect my son from his grandmothers where he has spent most of the past 2 weeks–thank you mam, i dont know what id do without you!x

On my return to the big city, i will be attempting to produce some drawing sheets and fill my sketchbook………

I have decided to learn the art of natural dyeing. This will be for my springboard project and i hope to take it through to my major project.  It is trial  and error, but i’ve had some good results and am enjoying the process.

hubble, bubble, toil and trouble

logwood

Logwood dyes a dark purple color depending on how long it is soaked for.  I left mine for a week and it went almost black on wool fabric.

blackberries

Got lots of scratches collecting the blackberries but it was worth it!  The smell was amazing… much more preferable than using chemicals in the dye lab!

turmeric

Tumeric stinks like sweaty socks!! gives good color though…….

widow twanky dries elderberry and alkanet

This is elderberry and dyers alkanet.  I didn’t like the alkanet, to much like a chemical and you can get a much nicer purple with logwood.

My next task is to try and print with natural dyes…im thinking it may have to be more of a stain through a stencil than a screen print……but we shall see!     xx