Eco Dyeing

 Our Textile and Fibre Art group at Caloundra had a workshop for Eco Dyeing and it got me all enthused.  I set about collecting  red and brown onion peels and tibouchina petals.  The petals were the easy part as they grow in our garden but the onion peels took a bit of boldness.  Actually it was my "sweet thang" who made a secret trip to the local supermarkets and asked for bags of the loose peels that I needed.  Isn't he a  sweety. 

These pieces of silk are about 3 metres long. The left one dyed in red onion and the right one dyed in tibouchina petals

Because this piece is 4 metres long and was wrapped quite tightly around the stick the brown onion dye is more prominent on the outer ends and becomes quit light in the middle.  I'm happy to see the patterning is quite evenly balanced on each half.

Brown onion peel on scrunched silk.

Thought I'd try a little bit of Shibori while I was at it.  This is marbles tied into a silk scarf.  It is dyed in red onion peels but I think I left it simmer too long because it went quite brown instead of the ruby colour that I'd been able to get before on another piece.