July's crown

Thanks to number one son for capturing this for me. I took the cards outside for a blessing last night but didn't bother with the camera. I'm glad he was paying attention.  While I was grilling dinner this morning I broke my own vow and put a few more pieces into the dyes. Some rank scraps that needed over-dyeing, a piece of some stripey weirdness that Jake got for me at yard sale while we were in NY and a quarter of a spectacular damask tablecloth that arrived yesterday - the kind I love with the tiny dots all woven through.
 They shall stew under tonight's full moon. And now to swim until I prune.

dye day wrap up

When I took the new pieces out of the dryer this morning they seemed to be infested with LINT, as if I washed a tissue or two along with them only I know that's not the case. So I took everything out onto the upper deck to give it all a good snapping shake creating a snowstorm of fuzz. Happily they gave up the fuzz to a little vigor. Then I spent a quick half hour ironing this unruly lot.

 Compared to the shimmering delicacy of damask, this varying weights of linens are very masculine by comparison. Tough cloths, every one of them. A fiber gang. I'm glad the colors stayed as strong as I wanted for this first round.

I'm going to suspend further attempts on the dyedeck until this brutal weather backs off. I find myself skipping steps and forgetting what comes next. The pleasure in the doing is just not there under these extreme conditions.

For a few minutes the trees tossed and moaned last night and I hoped for a thunderstorm but nothing materialized.

I'm going to hunker down in the AC of the studio, think about what is next, work with what is already at hand and attend to a few administrative tasks I have been putting off, like ordering new business cards and redoing the website.

Little stuff, you know, like the Augean stables....

I've also decide to extend the sale in the store and will be adding some of these Tough Guys into the mix.

poached linen and birthday festivities

Not the best picture but I like the way it lights up the room. One of my favorites from yesterday's foray into hot folly - trying to conduct a dyefest out on the deck like it was any other day off. Even though it is covered by a canopy, ( I call it the Burn Dyedeck for a good reason) yesterday (and today) was ridiculous at 104 degrees by noon. I really should have anticipated that soy wax would not behave in it's normal, docile and predictable fashion and that some colors would strike harder and faster while other would purely wilt as did yours truly. Even after a spell in the pool I was wiped out from heat. poached and not fit for much the rest of the day.

So no more day-long frenzys, going forward. I'll set up a few pieces in the early morning cool, leave them out to stew for the day and start all over again the next morning. I've converted a large cooler to a soda ash holding pot and there's plenty of white goods now with more coming in daily. Have to learn to pace myself.

And even further proof of my poached brains, I neglected to post in celebration of Colin's birthday. Jim went to great lengths to find a Carvel Cookiepuss ice-cream cake, and we gobbled it before it could melt. Mmmm... Ice cream cake for dinner.  Here's the birthday boy, my artistic accomplice.

past time to stop

I don't even want to know how hot it is. You just know it's time to stop when you start making messy mistakes. Oh, I know the red-headed devils always turn out to be my favorites but who needs a whole stable full of them?

Lots of mad scientist notions in play this morning - using up a bag of played out epsom salts  to carry dye powder. Mixing up pearl-ex gold and silver into binding solutions for some Pollock style homage. Several levels of bloody mud colorwise and a batch of silk prepped with wine vinegar because I had no white.

Some new approaches to finishing the fabrics too including decanting them from the mason jars and just letting them bake dry in the sun before any rinsing or washing.  Lazy labor saving devices for the most parts but dye batchers will call it wisdom. Time will tell and I am in no rush.

I found what might have been someone's hippy wedding dress in a bag back in the closet. A dimly recalled Goodwill purchase. Hastily deconstructed with scissors, now well represented in the jars. Lawn at it's best.

and now tea, plums and pooltime.

too hot to dye?

Not too hot for the dye or the cloth but too hot for humans. It's supposed to be 103 degrees out by midday so I spent the early morning just making preparations for tomorrows earliest hours (more triple digits are forecast) .

These are the wet samples that I hastily crammed into mason jars yesterday. The heavy markings are due to the lack of manipulation and a nice variable.

       All these are varying weights of linen and this cloth is FIERCE. My arms are tired from ripping. Most of the larger pieces have been put into the sauce and a few are in a soywax experiment. I'm trying to take advantage of the severe heat by settting a few pieces (with soywax chunks and crumbs folded in) out in the full sun in a black plastic garbage bag. Think it will get hot enough out there? Where are my crayons, now that I think about it....