The dry line is a testament to the richness of autumn color.  Late season fennel, pokeberry, toyon, black walnut, and oak galls adorn the outside of the medicine making kitchen.  Students brought things from home as well as explored a myriad of cellulose and protein fiber samples.

The students had made felt pouches in an earlier class, and brought them to our dye workshop to see if they could color them in our vats.  This experiment was with pokeberry.

This was a very fun collection of samples– with multiple over dye processes taking place.

Oak galls, coreopsis, pokeberry, local wool and some (non-local) silk look incredible in the late day sun.

Black walnut, toyon, and coreopsis samples in hand after a good days work.

Fuzzy fennel and iron dyed felt pocket, and a happy owner.

Thank you roots students… awesome day!

The class was focused on experimenting with seawater as a mordant.  We harvested from the ocean early in the morning and compared our results between the salty sea pre-treatments with the effects of alum and iron.  The seawater held its own.. the brightness of the dye vats was not diluted by the use of the ocean minerals.  One of the Fibershed designers– Ashley Brock (left) is seen with her indigo and cutch dyed tunic, and wool pendant.

Erin Reilly of the Regenerative Design Institute with Dustin Kahn (Fibershed’s marketplace creator), rinse samples in the newly renovated greenhouse.  The new space is so warm and perfectly lit for dye workshops, with a perfect amount of burners for all the dye vats!

Local wool yarns from Tennessee Valley in Southern Marin were dipped in the various dye pots as well as modified with wood ash from the wood burning stove.  This wonderful participant will be going back to her Waldorf school with new recipes for the children to try–(such a joy to teach other teachers, knowing the plant recipes will travel through the generations and other institutions).

A botanic experiment in the works with a father and daughter duo.

It was off to Pennsylvania not long after enjoying the coastal beauty of Northern California.  Amish country awaited.  Rolling cultivated hills, covered in green, dappled with goldenrod, poke and elderberry, a wonder for any dye loving human being.

The Western Pennsylvania landscape is beautifully maintained by the Amish, a fully remarkable society of people who have made a very strong commitment to a set of values that harken to pre-industrial past.

The workshop took place at the Nature Center at Westminster College.  Professors from various disciplines have come together in the name of a new and powerful environmental studies program, I came to teach and support their endeavor– by bringing the sciences and the arts together via natural dye making.  The dinner conversations wove through subjects of Robert Hass, banning poly bisphenol, protecting fresh water resources, and the joys of living in such a grounded small American town.

Pokeberry bliss…. the color is so beautiful, the plant so generous.. we dubbed it, our ‘North American cochineal.’

 A black-eyed susan sits above a coreopsis dyed cotton with stripes of printed homemade alum acetate.  Students loved using their magnetic stirrers and following simple ‘green’ chemistry instructions to create their own bonding agents.

Fingers and hands stained…..

The subtle effects of an acetate and leaf print on a coreopsis cotton dipped in a pH modifier of ash and water.

Thank you Westminster, Peggy Cox, and all the organizers, students, and participants who created such an incredible foundation for a wonderful series of classes and talks.  I am forever changed having been exposed to this peaceful place.

A well made and dyed shirt, accompanied by a lot of wool… ready for the knitting needles!

The work cart became a vehicle…. moving with slope and gravity, the activity became a favorite.

The indigo and distaff apron went home a little damp, but it was to hard to resist wearing it out the door…

During our last and final week of food focused activity, we made plum-honey-blackberry soda with wild yeast, and toured local food farms and gardens that line the country road we call…. Farm Alley.

Here is our wholewheat short-bread covered in blackberry, stevia and tumeric dyed icing– adorned with sprinkles of fennel seed, dried orange, violets, hibiscus and rose petals…

The cotton fabric we used to squeeze and strain our naturally fermented soda held a temporary and beautiful shade of orange and pink.

The plum and blackberry soda was presented at the children’s farm stand on our last day of our last week of classes–sitting atop an onion and plum leaf dyed cotton swath of cotton.

We also made fruit leather from apples, figs, and blackberries.  The children explored how to remove water from our wet mash– we tried three experiments– the sun, the oven and dehydrator.

 The sun won… the most direct, and least impacting form of energy dried our fruit leather faster than the oven or the dehydrator.

 Our rust experiments carried over through two weeks of class.  The sun cooked the iron objects in our water bath– providing a rich and smelly dye and mordant– all in one.  We overdyed the cloth in our plum and onion water creating a range of earthy tones.

The farm stand– housing all of the week’s food adventures.  Sun tea made from lemon verbena was served with sun-dried fruit leather, naturally fermented soda, blackberry preserves, naturally leavened bread, flowers from Mt. Barnaby Farm (where we visited earlier in the week), and whole wheat naturally adorned short bread.

The weeks passed by quickly and were an inspiration to us all– one of the young participants made a book inspired by her good times.

Thank you also to Kaiku, Mr. Peabody, Figellius, and Princess I-ching (the very sweet and lovely resident goats and lambs) who played with the children every day.  They seemed to have as much energy as the young humans– running jumping, chasing, snacking… they were excellent playmates for us all.

]]> http://ecologicalartist.wordpress.com/2011/08/05/farm-alley/feed/ 2 ecologicalartist IMG_0414 IMG_0416 IMG_0544 IMG_0404 IMG_0466 IMG_0527 IMG_0489 IMG_0525 IMG_0533 IMG_0499 IMG_0519 IMG_0506 IMG_0272 http://ecologicalartist.wordpress.com/2011/07/10/colors-of-california/ http://ecologicalartist.wordpress.com/2011/07/10/colors-of-california/#comments Sun, 10 Jul 2011 01:50:58 +0000 ecologicalartist http://ecologicalartist.wordpress.com/?p=2976 ]]>

Toyon, Oak Galls, Japanese Indigo, Fennel, Coyote Brush, Distaff…. this just-finished set of samples was so vibrant and joy producing, I had to share…. the preparation took several days of harvest, dye vat creation and skein winding!

The Sally Fox Cotton Yarns and Mary Pettis-Sarley’s wools illuminate the regions colors and fibers.  Indigo blue is so striking this time of year…

Those blues have inspired a lot of indigo growing, my crop is doing well.  All seeded and planted by hand.  Hand weeded, hand fertilized with cow and duck rich manures, and hand-sprayed with compost tea.  This agricultural source of blue is an addition to the native palate, and so well worth all the work of my hands!

This latest sample book illuminates the beauty of a ‘weed’ like fennel (soft yellow), and how lovely it combines with the indigo– providing an array of turquoise that moves into a range of deeper blues which were created with indigo all by itself.

Enjoy!!

Off to the farm for an evening weeding session

The life size jute weaving wall is being slowly constructed under the ancient walnut tree.  Willow and plum sticks make for flexible weavers.

This simply constructed loom was made with old picture frames… the children wove strips of vintage wool from mid-century patterned suit cloth.

The 100 yr. old drum carder fascinated and provided such a meditative movement to the children’s morning routine.  They carded with hand-tools and then moved to the crank machine.  ”So much faster… this machine!” they all commented.

Gathered rocks are harvested for making patterns in our clothes.  These were collected at the edge of the bay during our one week museum classes.

The effects of the children’s oak and iron experiments mixed in with some adept rock tying processes created this beautiful head scarf.

The excitement of making “ghost heads” in our T-shirts became overwhelmingly odd and funny.

The adobe houses were made with free form abandon– sticks and seaweed adorned the mud structures.  Discussions of renewable resources, and ‘using what is abundant for it’s first and best use’ was the theme of our house planning process.

Every material found a use.  All found objects were woven into the architecture of the home.  The ocean plant life dried quickly leaving a firm and useful roof for this little house.

Our last and vital activity was to create clay dyed protection flags to bring awareness to the ground nesting Killdear birds.  We could not imagine how the little birds could have remained safe amid the hustle and bustle of the museum grounds– we did what we could to let the passer-bys know of their existence.

More summer images and impressions from the children’s eco-art processes to come….

The spring dye season began at the Filoli Estate in Woodside this year.  Expansive meadows, riparian ecosystems, oak studded woodlands… a perfect place for our first and semi-rainy day of dye work.

We painted with crushed stone and fruit inks… and then immersed our work in dye vats of the season.

The water laden plants created a soft palate whose tones looked so much like our surroundings.

The experiments continued throughout the afternoon, the playful samples kept coming…

The following week, I was off to the schools.. this lovely piece was done by an 8th grade crew working on re-purposing their thrift store finds during a week of Eco-chic explorations.

These T-shirts were in their first phase of being refurbished… the students used shibori techniques with tongue depressors and coffee stirrers.  Next step: embroidery, and sewing.

The whole collection, inspired from the spring recipe for Logwood!

Gorgeous colors came from our Bay Area Discovery Museum dye day– the bright yellow emerged from distaff dye pots.  Every child’s favorite color!  It also happens to be a species that our open space districts, national parks, and other land management agencies are spraying with herbicides to remove… I much prefer dye making from such a plant.  I recommend the master dye bath recipe, as well as an alkaline after bath.  

Into the distaff dye pot went our little flags.

Out came the brightest yellow!  Everyone was so pleased.

We pounded colors from our cultivated gardens into our distaff colored fabric swatches.  We used the spring dye starter recipe from the new book Harvesting Color.  This particular project is perfect for children and adults seem to love it too.

The end result…. little pounded distaff dyed cloths!
More spring dyes to come… with these late spring rains, their will be so much to harvest!

The first dye series of its kind was taught at the Regenerative Design Institute this Spring– classes steeped in processes created from the very landscape surrounding our dye pots and ink vats.  Coffeeberry, Toyon, and Coyote Brush were harvested by our team of eco-art explorers.

We began on a rainy day for our harvest… we gave each plant a clean-up and nice little prune.

We made our modifiers and mordants through the crushing of galls from our native black oak.  A beautiful and renewable binding agent.

The copper pots were put to good use to patina our colors…. they have masterful results with the native plants.

We began to experiment with home made screens– images originally drawn by an artist and designer friend, Sierra Reading of the California College of the Arts.  The images of Pokeberry and Black Walnut (both dye plants), looked quite beautiful in our coffeeberry ink.

The Pokeberry image was created with coffeeberry ink on a toyon dyed cotton fabric

A lovely hand-cut printing block was used to make this design.

The class was intently creative….

Painting leaves proved to be an exquisite way to print…

We shared our blocks and leaves with one another.

We also created some gorgeous prints without the use of blocks– just using bay leaf, eucalyptus, rubber bands, and iron rich waters.

Thank you to all of the class members– your art was and is an inspiration!

Thank you to Michael Keefe for your continuous stream of good photography and support:

For more pics of our workshop:  See the Smug Mug Site

A cold and rainy winter morning blossomed like a meadow of wild color as we dipped and stirred our clothes into botanical brews.  Dr. Sara Gottfried hosted a fabulous wardrobe reclamation at her Oakland home.  The vats of steaming plant matter wafted like tea, and the hot water warmed our chilly fingers and hands.

The coffeeberry yielded a magical greenish yellow.  The branches and leaves came from a local ranch where a big pruning had just taken place.

We also made use of the Valley Oak’s renewable gifts.. the galls create an incredibly steely gray color.  At this time of year they can still be found dangling from the barren branches.  Known as ‘an apartment building’ for insect life, the galls host a plethora of tiny species in the larval stages during the autumn.

Toyon branches were collected from another pruning job.  Leaving the berries for bird food is normally best… but if they are trimmed from the tree for the reasons of a landowner, they can be used in a dye pot to add a little added orange hue to the color.

A lucky find of coreopsis was at the local farmer’s market, and was purchased just before the workshop began.  The flowers create a beautiful and very strong orange dye almost instantaneously.

Dr. Sara Gottfried dyes a pole-wrapped garment

Dr. Gottfried’s dye work is a small step in support of  her overall efforts to wear and eat organic this year.  Her organic experiment, as it is known, began January 1st of 2011.  I’ve loved reading her blog: http://drgottfried.blogspot.com/.  It is a journal that weaves together her life as a wearer and eater of organic, as well as a doctor, a hormone expert, a mother, and an astute barometer for inspiring and eye opening books.

Her evolving journey rings so true and resonant to experiences I’ve had in the Fibershed project.  I also completely adore her entries on female hormones, burnout, and thyroid malfunction and its causes…. all very pertinent for those of us who tend to burn the candle at both ends.  The entry that grabbed me recently was her description of receiving a garment in the depths of the winter temperatures.  The organic experiment took time to evolve, and winter was already here.  After a week or more of coldness…

“All changed yesterday when my organic, fair-trade sweater showed up in the mail. The world brightened. Slipped it on at the UPS store. Fit gloriously and within seconds.” –Dr. Gottfried

Left: Rebecca Burgess wears Sally Fox cotton pants, fennel vest, toyon neck cowl, and an oak gall shirt. Right: Sara Gottfried wears a fully organic outfit, jacket was locally designed and sewn

Self-imposed limitation creates this kind of gratitude and joy.  I know this feeling so well.  It is a pleasure and a gift to be able to share this feeling with Sara.  I feel a sense of respect and total admiration for her efforts and journey.  It’s good work, not always easy but incredibly worthwhile.

This experiment means supporting the movement away from that which has the potential to disrupt our most sacred balance, and personal energy resources.  To remove the synthetic compounds from our diet and clothing is a process of giving ourselves those things we are intrinsically designed for–natural fibers, and clean food.  Good for the inside, good for the outside.

Thank you Sara for inspiring, illuminating, and teaching through what you know, and most importantly, what you do.

Thank you Madeleine Tilin for you amazing photography!

Have you ever wanted to assess the plant species in your region for natural dye capability?  I certainly have! I also have had the interest to see if there are colors that I have not achieved in the dye vat that are secretly hiding out somewhere… waiting for the right protocol.  For these reasons I started collaborating with a local biology professor and doing some very basic chromatography experiments.

Through the harvest of just a handful of plant material you can conduct a simple experiment to see what colors lay beneath the surface.

Here lay three handspun toyon dyed skeins, and s sprig of the plant, along with a chromatography strip.    The definition of chromatography… ‘a process used for separating mixtures by virtue of differences in absorbency’…

The chromatography strips created with toyon leaves were representative of many of the colors that I have already discovered.  The bulk of the color on the strip is a rusty orange– which is a common color achieved with toyon dye.  Towards the end of the strip, there is a small area of pink— a very new and curious color!

I began to play with the water of cooked berries (which are edible if roasted or boiled), and achieved these colors (as seen below)..

These pinks were abundantly available from the berry water, and showed up on linen, silk, and cotton samples.  My question was if it was possible to achieve the pink tones without the use of berries, (I prefer not to use berries for dye– because they are such a nice food source for birds and people).

This experiment is being continued… and was further explored at the seaside day of dyes.  I brought toyon leaves and stems that had soaked on slow heat for days..and within a copper pot.  Something about the copper, ocean water, and leaves, all combined– yielded some exquisite results, far beyond a simple orange or pink.. the color lived somewhere between the two.  If I had not experimented with the chromatography I’d have had no sense that these colors were possible… the beauty of the scientific process, is that it shows you what might be available to you in the dye pot.  You are, of course, then left with how to achieve those results, and that is often where the fun begins.

The experimenting continues.. and if you’d like to try your own chromatography experiment:

Grind 5 or 6 leaves in mortar and pestle

Cover the leaves in alcohol (medical grade)

Let sit for 24 hours or longer

Pour liquid into a test tube

Place chromatography paper into the test tube, cover, and wait

I recommend several days, even a week of absorption before removing the paper

Its a bit cold, and as you can see from this picture.. it’s dark too!  The winter has moved many dye processes inside.  As it started to rain a few moments ago, I pulled everything off the dry line and moved into the studio/garage.  The wool has just come from a dye bath of vinegar and my frozen pokeberry harvest.  (My gorgeous 7 ft. tall plant, was dripping with berries this last autumn), I froze them and was waiting for the perfect wool to dye them in.  These skeins are from Reba, a lovely merino sheep who lives in Mendocino County, CA.

The letter K is a screen print that my brother and I created for my mother (Kerry), for Christmas.  I made a glorious ink with galls from a very manganese rich soil.  This ink has become a silk screen dream. I am very happy with the outcome.  It can undergo all kinds of washing and still hold a solid slate gray tone.

As you can see here the pokeberry wasn’t the only dye color I used.  As I began to exhaust the bath, the pink turned lighter and lighter, so I quickly dipped a few of these into my indigo vat– giving a modeled and violet hue to the wool.  I can’t wait to see this wool turn into the designer dress that its being created for!  More on that later..