magic

there is magic in the air tonight
the moon is bathing the land in night
owl eyed Athena is looking down on me
faces stare at me
a warrior
a priestess
i am reading the iliad it is time

dogs,flokati,boy sleeping

winter, heroes, containers and the galaxy

envelope pouches, all plant dyed cloth
from clothes

weekend work- had to drive through this, ice at night, to go to tell stories and come back at night
the insides, sometimes a lizard hides in there
the outsides
little onesthoughts:

-why is the eye of the storm called an eye? from aerial pictures and because of the silence I would think it is an ear

-knitted cloth makes me swear. only the colours are fun

-it can take days to make one tiny pouch, and a few can be made in a day. this is not a paradox.

-making arroz con leche can connect you to the galaxy if you speak greek. rizogalo-rice and milk-gala=milk=galaxy. boys believe mothers are for making warm sweet milky things. maybe we are put on earth for that purpose.

-it is 4C outside. no central heating. fireplace night tonight.

-some people are heroes, they spend their life grumbling. (bus driver complaining today - well it was raining, and yes, when you go up a mountain there are lots of turns, villages tend to have not very wide roads, but mr... there are roads, they are better than passable, and your work is taking people places, no? and we have made this huge space for you to park and turn comfortably, and we brew coffee for you drivers, but, life has to be difficult, otherwise you wouldn't be a hero, huh?)

-children always ask me if goblins exist. I always say they do. our world is multi dimensional, and deep inside we all know that. that is why stories are true.

-seeing how wide their eyes get and their chins falling is priceless.

-Luka dog is a cat dog. when the fire is lit she wants to sit inside the fireplace. me too.

colours

grey, yes, screams for colour. I washed some of my summer dyed cloths, tore bits, layered rags and now I'm practising stitching Round and roundand I finished(yes, finished!)two pouches, the blackbird for my brother and swinging my arms.

practising buttonhole edging, getting better by the stitch

it is much too hot for the time of year, the trees are undecided about how to deal with it. some think it is spring, new leaves, flowers etc, some are tentativeley changing colour. the mulberries are still in full green leaf, anemones are dotting the grasses, lilacs think it is eastertime, some plants have flowered four times this year. And the olives are on strike for the third or fourth year in a row.

cotton sheets and rags. indigo, cochineal bought a while ago in a quest for red, black eyed susan and mixes

warsaw and prints

I am in Warsaw with the spaniards, that is my boys and their father. Eldest son is moving here to go to school. It is beautiful and sunny (for the time being, anyway) and the parks are stupendous'Sunday morning Chopin concert was fabulous.
this is what came out of a pot left for a week, I sneak peeked and opened it before leaving, and now it is going to stay here. I´ve torn and bundled all my white sheets and pillowcases, and they are simmering in the sun in pots and jars, bundled with metals and leaves. looks promising...


the cloth in the top photo was pieced and then cut into moebius strips and is slowly turning into a strip' what do you call it bias strip ? I'll show you when it's done

heat and absence

so it happens that I am alone at home for three days. A true holiday, a difference. Also, there is a heatwave. 40C in the shade. limiting movement, and food, and sleep.

so how to fill absence in a heatwave?

reflecting, sweating, musing, watering, myself, plants, myself.

the vat is at its happiest

stitching is ok, especially if I don't get too fussy

at night I play around with positioning cloths

basting sometimes

made a little blue ridinghood with the cutouts from beachcloth and sea cloth. I think I'll give her a pink madder wolf.

cat, owl, fish is an applique sampler

fun

oh yes, dyeing cloths

sort of madly dyeing- there's nothing like a heatwave to bless pots

also preparing bundles, because a longer absence is in the near future, the best recipe to leave them alone

I surprised a gecko in a bag of leaves

I live with colonies of them, they are vociferous and entertaining

and they eat moths, mosquitoes etc

say hello to grace, mr gecko

the window is from kythera, a seaming window

you can see more of my dyeing on flikr, there on the right

in and out

madder+sumac leaves+a pinch of alum, next is madder+rusty nails, pomegranate rinds all on dmc cotton yarn in solar pots, simmered a short while and left for a week
a seam apocalypse
madder +iron on the brownish, the other is cochineal. I'll let them cure awhile
I'm in and out, telling stories here and there

the needle is dancing in and out learning new dance moves

things are jumping in and out of pots

(its good when I'm away because I can't poke them)

blogger is in and out, making it difficult to answer comments and see other blogs

thank you so much for your comments.

colours

the camera inertprets colours.

the green skein in the bottom picture is cotton for lace(?) dmc no 60, dyed in a mix of various rhamnus berry dyebaths, simmered and left in the sun, where they fermented happily and smellily, in the company of a small piece of rusty iron.

the same skein, in the picture above it, with stronger light from the sun. maybe it it foretelling poor lightfastness.

the same skein in the top picture, lower right looks beige (!) in the company of indigo blues, which in their turn look quite washed out and grey......

on my monitor, the last foto is truer, and the little skein is eucalyptus.

the beginning colour of the cotton is ecru

I'm getting more cotton to leave in the pomegranate and madder

sea and sky

we went to the sea today, there was no one swimming, too cold. End of June, in Greece! I stitched some, and took photos. Telemaco went in the water, I put a jacket on..

all colours (on the cloths and threads) are from plants, with some help from rusty nails and little bacteria, except for the heart- I haven't gotten round to dyeing threads with madder yet

artificial light in the top two pictures, the beach scenes are from the cellphone

philemon and baucis

the treecloth I've been making for jude hill's cloth to cloth online workshop, backsidetrunk and beginning of roots, up close
all components secured, cloth washed. All fabrics have been dyed by plants from this area. After I washed it I saw the face on the trunk, but the embellishing will come later. It has been so satisfying to make, and magical, really. It is full of stories. I see the olive tree of this land, after the fire, is she praying, or is she dancing? I think a beetle will keep her company, a little lizard and a scops owl,

this is the olive tree which lives next to the houseand this was a fragrant home for a family

today we sre going to the sea to wash the fleeces

red and blue on the same day

this ones roots are safe from me
red trails-or are they rivers?
put in dry, long soaks in the vat, washed many times...yes, the smell does go away. 2 dips. you can see the top of Helen Melvins "The Colour of Sea and sky" which has been a great help in the indigo venture, along with J. Liles "The Art and Craft of Natural Dyeing"
my bundles warming up on the corner of the veranda
eucalyptus leaves shadows. I like this. I wish I left them longer
more prints on the bundle with the madder root. they were not left long enough to develop. they will probably get an ironwater treatment. and I don't know what gave the green...I'll turn into a meticulous notetaker yet
the madder in a jar with water. it is fermenting visibly after 24hrs
anthemis tinctoria, the green is overdyed with poppy iceflower,underneath all pomegranate rind warp yarn
bark soaking for the next round
while peeking into a bundle, impatient as always, I got a surprise.

red

deep lovely red

the bundle was hastily unbundled, and it was true..the orange root of madder gave me a deep red

I;ve been bundling up pieces of my pomegranate cloth, with leaves and metals

I simmered them in eucalyptus bark dyebath with more rusty nails, they are a very satisfactory black colour, now they are stewing in the very hot sun

there are coins in there as well, and some of the bundle cores are copper pipes, people just throw them out.

I have never been given red from madderroot before, and I am very excited

this madder was collected on May 1 in Varnavas, next village up, and it grows in very different conditions than it does here, in Grammatiko. I found it near a path in the forest where there is a lot of water, and the soil was moist, at places saturated with water. these were young roots, I didn't have a digging tool with me, so I just dug in a little bit and pulled out some intensely orange coloured roots, thin ones

I believe the preparation of the cloth has been very important. They have been scoured with caustic soda and lots of olive oil soap, which may have acted as the rancid oil of old.

it has been premordanted in succesive dips of wood ash lye and soya milk, and then dyed in pomegranate rind soup, cold

1st note to prospective dyer: Prepare, prepare, prepare. it is certainly worth it

a few remarks

my water is hard. very hard.

soya milk is fantastic. it is worth getting good quality beans.

sit on your hands. let those bundles age.

as long as possible.

keep notes on process. I may want to try to do it again

it feels like a gift from the land

the technique of bundling up plant matter is from India Flints " eco colour", a book which has led me to many a joyous dyeing experience. I am grateful to india for publishing this book. It s place is by my bed, and even just reading it gives me much enjoyment.

and the blue

yayyy again! I am dancing with joy

my urine vat is getting there! smelly, ammoniacal, ph over 9, sitting in the sun all day long, it has not been lazy at all. the indigo is reducing, it is dyeing strips of cotton , and yesterday it was washfast

I am so excited that my mind is running around itself trying to decide what to do first

:-))))))))))))