Leaf Me Alone

The Buderim Surface Design Group issued a challenge for the "Year of the Forest" and this is my interpretation.  Too many of our forest are being cleared, hence the pun in the name 'Leaf Me Alone".
On a piece of my onion dyed silk, I used a fern frond as a stamp to create the design.  First with discharge paste, then with a yellow and then two green dyes. A bit of stitching to add texture plus a touch of gold leaf to finish.  Afterward I realised the gold leaf was a bit too much but what's done is done.

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.