Green Tea Rust Dyeing Experiment

 Home with a day off after my stimulating  CQ Winter School workshop  on rust marks with Alice Fox, I wanted to have a go straight away while  it was fresh in my mind.  I found a  bag with some old tools in the cellar ( mainly some of my Dad's pliers) and some Green Tea bags bought from a herbalist in Iran which I hadn't got round to trying ( good for obesity apparently!)
As before I placed some watercolour paper in a tray and placed tools and items either directly onto the paper or wrapped them in silk or linen  with lashings of tea. I then lay a piece of silk chiffon over the top. The photo  below was taken just after setting up, the photo above was the marks on  paper after 3 impatient days!  I'm thrilled  with most of the results - I used the tea  when it was hot and there's less of the brown  staining resulting from normal tea, more variety in colour and tone.

The chiffon layer on top also picked up stronger marks

 I was also pleased with the marks on the strips wrapped round nails 9 although there were a few that took up hardly any caolour.

I liked the effect of the rusty tin bottom ( above)  and the piece of shelving bracket (below)

The wrapped pliers gave the most interesting  and  pleasing results: linen above, silk habatai below. Definitely an experiment to build on.  

Stitched Rust Marks

I've just unwrapped the parcels of stitched fabrics wrapped around rusting items that we prepared on Saturday afternoon as part of CQ Winter school workshop with Alice Fox . After a busy morning wrapping up items , wetting them with tea, it was nice to have  a change of pace, digesting our delicious lunch!  Alice shared some of her samples showing how she'd stitched into the fabrics before dyeing with rust and built up layers and textures. The picture below shows 'before' and the results above 'After' (these are the more interesting ones)

 

An intriguing idea was to incorporate a piece of metal between 2 layers and stitch around it, the idea being that the metal remained in it ( might be a useful way  to  weight a quilt) I prepared 2 samples with washers- one with linen , the other with cotton organza. In both cases I placed the fabric on top of some watercolour paper  and then put a silk chiffon layer over the top - hoping to catch any marks  above and beneath ( the photo below is after a days soaking in  tea.)

 In the case of the cotton organza ( above) with  stitching out from the centre, it was the paper beneath that gave the most interesting marks

For the linen, all 3: paper, linen and silk chiffon over-layer  provided interesting, sand ripple like marks. It's my aim   to  combine all  of them in one piece and also investigate this  particular method further

Rust Marks at Alston Hall -CQ Winter School

  It was my 5th time at Alston Hall on Contemporary Quilt Summer/Winter school  and possibly the best yet! I love the  peaceful surroundings looking out over the Ribble valley, the food is delicious ( 6 different  cakes at afternoon tea!)  and the company stimulating as ever.

 I was pleased to see that the  peeling  paint of the glasshouse door as featured in my 2 green door quilts was still intact and even more weathered!

 Last time I had a productive time sewing on a retreat but this time I was doing a workshop with Alice Fox on ' Rust Marks'

 Sue generously  shared part of the 10kg of rusty items she brought in  her rucksack on the train ( considerably lighter on our return as she donated several items )

 Rather than using vinegar  as the acid to create the rust marks on fabric and paper, Alice uses sea water in situ as in  her 'tide mark series' or  tea ( which works because of the tannic acid it contains). Apart from 'builders tea' she had a selection of other brews to try including red wine ( which went down suspiciously quickly)

  Our first exercise was using wire woll as this gives very quick results  and lovely marks.

 Than  we got busy  wrapping our items or placing them on  paper until the hallway looked like the scene of an archaeological dig.  Ideally the marks are better if  items are left wet for a few days and dry out naturally  but  most of us couldn't resits opening our parcels on Sunday morning so see what was happening

To retain moisture, I mostly covered my parcels or items with a piece of silk  chiffon or habatai  which also picked up subtle marks

 The  piece of chiffon placed over a saw blade resulted in this charming 'rapunzels tower'

 So that we could see the effect of a longer contact time, Alice had these wrapped nails which had been marinating for a week and we had the pleasure of opening them!

 Even better, we were each given a piece of the silk and linen to experiment with.

 I decided to make a little book ( as for Dorothy Caldwell's  masterclass and in  Crete ) and created several signatures which I have yet to sew together (still playing with the sequence)

 The   marks of wire wool on paper and a piece of silk organza wrapped around a nail was one of my favourite combinations. The subtle marks  and tones  achieved work well in a  small format and I like the interactions that happen.

   My piece-de-resistance  however was a much larger piece -  a fine silk dupion wrapped around the piece of rusting car I found on Aldeburgh beach that Ian very reluctantly allowed me to bring home.

 

Ultimate Guide to Art Quilting

In the post this week I received my copy of  'The Ultimate Guide to Art Quilting' by Linda Seward , which features in the quilting section my quilt 'Tideline - after the storm', one of my favourites  as it summons up a particular place and time. I'm in very good company, sharing the page with Annette Morgan and Pia Welch.

Linda did her usual meticulous research  with incredible attention to detail and besides being a lovely book to look at , with nearly 140 artists featured, the instructions for every art quilt technique you can think of (and more!) are clear and succinct. The deceptively simple illustrations  are by Tom Messenger  and the overall design of the book  by Jane Glennie (TVCT)

Looking at the spread on indigo dyeing, which I know something about  but which I wasn't involved in contributing to, I can see that  it gives you enough just information to give it a go and then follow up further in the extensive bibliography. I looked with interest at the section on rust dyeing, especially now I've heard I've got a place on CQ Winter School with Alice Fox! It even has useful sections on sewing machine tips and exercises.

Linda and her team  have done a really thorough job - I thoroughly recommend the book, and not just because I'm in it! I'm sure it will become the art quilt equivalent  of  what many consider the Q&P bible. Other reviews from Gillian Cooper, Margaret Cooter, and Sandy Snowden
Linda will be  the Festival Of Quilts  launching the book with a display of quilts from the book (including 'Tideline') on stand B30 and is giving a couple of lectures on the artists and the process of putting the book together.

Indigo Shibori at CQ Winter School

 I had a very productive weekend at Contemporary Quilt's first Winter School at Missenden Abbey, producing lots of indigo shibori with Janice Gunner. Our improvised indigo drying using scaffolding and a washing line between 2 trees was much admired and  photographed.
It was the first time  that I'd been to Missenden - rather classier accommodation than I'm used to for such events, good food and excellent company. Lovely surroundings too, very atmospheric in the early morning mists.

 I'd come well prepared for restocking my arashi stocks, sewing around 20 tubes of fabric beforehand on the machine - I left my  stripey 'socks' out overnights then unpicked them in the morning!

 I was determined to crack 'mokume', my previous attempts not being tight enough and it was worth the effort.  My indigo stash is currently drying in the conservatory - there will be lots of photos when I return from Weymouth but I couldn't resist bringing this piece with me to stitch on - I'll be looking again at the 'magic feathers' tutorial. These wonderful marks were achieved by wrapping fabric around a bath outlet tube left when our bath was being repaired, inspired by the results of Edwina's 'breathing tube' at Summer school 2 years ago.