swimming with the cloth

I laughed out loud when I ready Judy's latest post cause I had just come in from the pool and teaching some new acquaintances how to swim...


While I shot this video, Van Morrison's "Into the Mystic" was playing on the radio....YouTube took away the music but I bet you can hear it playing in your head. (You can open in another tab and play the song Here...  go figger)

fruits of the weekend

Everything is in the washing machine - drying? ironing?
Maybe tomorrow - the day job recommences today.

I think I need a mid season pallet reassessment. I threw away at least five empty dye jars and colors are missing. And I want more soywax...off to Prochem!


PS- the rate of color loss was severe. I put it down to old dyes depleted by exposure to high temps...once mixed they are supposed to be stored cool. the Lesson..mix only what will be needed for a session or follow the rule!

the recurring alligator dream

I went to sleep last night with achy stiff fingers on my right hand, presumably from all the washerwoman activities that go along with hand dyeing. I dreamed that I was swimming in deep water -not salt and vaguely cloudy like Lake Lanier can be - and was close up to and touching a whale which was sunning itself at the surface when something grabbed and bit down on my right hand. I went under the water and saw what at first appeared to be a patch of seaweed but quickly realized that it was an alligator about to take a better grab. 

"Alligator Dream"   2009

As it opened it's mouth I stuck my cell phone between it's jaws sideways and pulled my right hand free and remember thinking  "water damage was not covered in the warranty". The alligator hurried away with my phone in it's mouth and I turned back to the whale who was about to swim away and hitched a ride like it was no big deal. I remember looking at my hand and seeing angry red dents on the side of my middle finger and it ached like I had jammed it.

fini

I'm so glad I waited to do part two until this morning. The paler colors you see here were just hatched out from the group that went into the dyes this morning - a very tempered hand at the color helm was necessary. 

And for once, I got a set of greys that I like - MX Gunmetal and a tad of mystery mud to warm it.

Keep in mind that these colors will all  be stepped back a bit once they are washed and dried. For tonight, I'm just going to let them pickle.In the lower right corner are three or four damask table wipers.

August dyefest - day one

It was much hotter out on the deck than I expected and I was delighted when a brief thunder storm passed over and cooled the proceedings  down just a bit.

My personal thermostat seems to be broken these days. I overheat like an old Ford and cannot be cooled down quickly or easily.  I had to call an early halt but will pick up where I left off tomorrow.


I'm planning on a more subtle group of colors this time out. The dyestock that I'm using was mixed two months ago and has not been stored under optimal conditions and so, hopefully, will give the paler colors I hoping for.

All the cloth I'm working with is vintage - tender as Jude would say - and feels like it wants a gentler color touch than I'm used to dishing out. Some color whispering is underway.

I bought a heavily starched and ironed damask tablecloth at a yard sale this morning.
A little yellowed around the edges, it was tied tight in a bundle with jute and weighed several pounds. When I got it home and unfurled it for washing it was four by ten feet!