Designing fabrics with nothing but leaves, is something magical! I still have the same excited curiosity whenever I print any leaves! Some leaves I know well and have printed with them for a long time. Still to this day they offer surprises! The results can be influenced by so many different things. The time of year, how old the leaf it, it is fresh, or dry, the water that was used. This process has really driven home the importance of keeping notes as I go! I dye mainly on cellulose fibers. Hemp, Organic Cotton, Linen. There are so many different ways to botanically print fabric, really the best way is the way you will figure out as you play with...
Where I live in Southern Ontario, we have an abundance of Black Walnut Trees (Juglans nigra). Every fall, anywhere you walk you are bound to come across squirrels collecting, and dropping walnuts. Even without the help of the squirrels, as they ripen the walnuts drop to the ground. This is where I collect from. The abundance of them in my community also has friends leaving me large bags of walnuts taken from their yards. Some people like to break open and separate the hulls from the nut inside, This is no easy task! I knew someone who would drive over them with his truck to remove husks! ( he was collecting for eating the walnuts. YES they are edible!) I choose the path of least...
As Spring arrives, I am slowly running out of saved plant material to dye with from the summer and fall. As the snow was melting in Southern Ontario, all the pinecones that had fallen during the winter starting poking themselves out of the slush. I remembered I read, at some point that they were used as dye, so I collected a bunch. All different varieties of pine and spruce cones. (spruce cones? is that a word?) Because this was a lockdown, hiking with the dog whim of an experiment, I didn't follow the rules I usually do when working with new dye stuff. I didn't do any weighing of the pine cones, or of the material I used. I don't...
Welcome to my little space of writings. My name is Julia and I am the creator behind this site and all its contents. Ive decided to try my hand at blogging. To share my musings on textiles and yoga, maybe even some tutorials?!! Ive been playing with textiles for over 20 years! I have no formal education, just a human learning as I go!. But with everything in life, I couldn’t, and cant do it alone. I have read countless books, played with countless fibers and plants, and shared learning time with other folks doing the same work. Ill share my favorites here, over time as we go. As I learn how to blog?! So thank you for being here,...
