Destroying the flowers - but......

turning them into something interesting.

On Tuesday of this week I went along to a new (for me) meeting of a group of ladies who like to do fibre arts and art quilts.  It is an affiliate group of Geelong Quilters Guild which I am a member.  They used to meet on Guild days for an hour before the actual meeting started, but always found this to be quite restrictive if they wanted to work on something or have a workshop.  It was decided to meet on another day so we could have an 'all day session'.

After lots of Show and Tell and ooing and aahing, then lots of chatter about what everyone wanted to do, we did a little bit of experimenting with 'pounding flowers and leaves' onto cloth to get the dye from the plants.

It was very fascinating - seeing how the different plants reacted - some were great others not so.

When I got home I had a little experiment with some of my own flowers.  I actually used a piece of batting, rather than material for my playing.....

This is what I ended up with -

I picked two different types of geranium flowers and a varigated leaf.  Placing the flowers between two pieces of batting I 'pounded' them for a few seconds until the colours came out.

The first one shows the flower colours and shapes when placed face down on the batting.  The second photo shows the batting that was on top of the flowers, in other words showing the back of them.  Notice how the leaf colour comes out much more stronger when the batting is placed on the back and the flower colours come out much better when placed facing down.

I think I'm going to do a lot of more this - and try some other plants that are in my garden (....shush....maybe some interesting ones I find when I go walking around the neighborhood.....)

Note to self - must take secateurs when next I go walking......

What if???.....A little experiment.

Not long ago I was wrapping a present with bright pink tissue paper and it was hot and my hands were a little damp - some of the dye from the tissue paper stained my fingers and a light bulb went off in my mind......What if......

I took out a small bundle of natural silk tops (undyed), put some water (only half cup) in a container and placed the threads in the water then put in a piece of the tissue paper (about a quarter of a sheet) - and voila - this is what happened within seconds.........beautiful pink silk threads.  My only wish is I had some more papers.  Will leave these for a few days and see if by ironing them with some Misty Fuse onto a backing they keep their colour.  I will let you know the result.

Don't you love the colour - you can see a small piece of the original tissue on the left and the threads next to it.  Think a trip to the $2 shops and see if I can pick up some more papers is on the cards to do.  Such quick and cheap way of dying.   No need to go down the mixing/stirring/measuring/wearing a mask way of dying little bits of stuff.  I will have to try it on some fabric next and after heat setting will see if the colour stays or runs.
(Again my apologies for the missing photos - when they are found I will replace them).