Baskets from the garden

November 27, 2017 6 Comments

On the weekend I caught the last day of the Intertwined exhibition as the Koorie Heritage Trust. As well as the more traditional baskets and eel traps, Lisa Waup‘s little woven nest of feather and fibre really stood out. Lovely pastel colours interwoven with wallaby browns. Artwork like Lisa’s and that of Ruth Woods of Craft School Oz are so inspirational. It’s just amazing what you can do with found objects and plants from the garden, plants that I thought were rather useless, but grew where edibles refused.
I have a brown thumb when it comes to growing bush tucker. After years of doing nothing my Midyim berry was ended with a careless boot. My cranberry heath although they began promisingly lush and green, were taken with a sudden browning around the edges which in a matter of days engulfed the entire plant. Meanwhile the poa grasses, almost mockingly thrive on neglect, self-seeding and spilling beyond their allocated borders onto paths. The lomandra too are getting so long they threaten to fell passersby with a tentacle around an unsuspecting ankle. Nature will have its way, if I can’t eat it , I might as well learn to weave it.

A fortnight ago I had the opportunity to indulge in two passions: crafting and gardening. Ruth runs workshops all over Victoria, but the one at Alowyn gardens includes a wander through the silver birch forest garden and perennial border gathering weaving material as we walked. Such a treat! I couldn’t recommend it more, it is such a special place to learn from an especially talented lady.

Ruth’s work is a unique mix of all the styles shared by women from South East Asia to Arnhem land and no doubt her own particular panache. Her enthusiasm is infectious and I loved that she is always on the eye out for new materials to work with. Agapanthus may be too fleshy to use, but why not try succulent leaves? I was particularly taken with the cordyline leaves which although were once green dried to lovely obergine, just to show that you cannot judge a leaf by its colour.

It was a lovely day and at then end each basket reflected the personality of the maker, some were meticulous and small, some adorned with flamboyish sweeps of leaves or nuts. Mine was the biggest I think, not sure what that says about me? No time for timidity? Probably more that I thought making cordage was a particularly neat trick. Each basket was different, although from what I overheard, almost all destined to become a resting spot for kitchen eggs!

I hope you can find some inspiration from the beautiful collection that was whipped up in a day by a cheerful group of amateur enthusiasts. Let me know if you have any weaving tips, tricks or inspo, I’d love to hear about it.

Lomandra leaves can be used green, or collect the try bits by pulling as you pass, they’ll just come away from the base.

Iris leaves are fiberous and a fantastic material to use. Dry for a few weeks then soak in water to make them pliable.

Daylilies are edible and great for weaving!

Like corn husks succulent leaves can be wrapped around strappy leaves or cordage.

Ruth used palm inflorescence for the top

>

Coiling a cordyline cordage. What a tongue twister!

A few of the stunners made at the workshop

Naturally dyed raffia was fun to use, much nicer than the dental floss texture of the artificial sinew

These friends didn’t know the other was attending. Maybe a new shared hobby for those summer evenings on the porch.

Guides

Eco dyeing and printing

March 5, 2016 4 Comments

It’s a perfect day for writing. Grey, but warm with the occasional patter of rain on our tin roof. A sound imprinted on most Australians from childhood. It’s a dawn for reflection and The Art Deco Music Collection.

Has a little, superficially insignificant thing stirred you into action? I often dream about learning skills, they’re relatively simple to achieve, but somehow I need a reminder that the time or cost isn’t an extravagance, retirees have it right. The reminder came when my friend confessed her desire to learn Auslan, just for fun. Not astounding in and of itself, but astounding because of its source, a person not disposed to whimsy. She is straightforward-sensible, inclined towards planning and irked by impulse. This change in her was an inspiration, time for me too, to wander off the well-worn path.

Soon after the fates delivered me the Handmaker’s Factory, via an untraceable web of click links. I had decided to book a workshop before I even realised it was on my door steps, 15 minutes’ walk away in Kensington. Good luck or good Google data collection?

Eco dyeing is something that has fascinated and mystified me since I first spied India Flint’s Eco Colour. Complexity lurks beneath the surface of art. It is not as simple as step into your back garden and there are nature’s dyes in all their natural glory. It seemed more like a confusing science experiment of mordants and modifiers, some of which, though natural, could kill you!

Although the internet is abundant with information, nothing really beats learning from an expert. Nichola, of Handmaker’s Factory, broke it down and gave us the confidence to take our knowledge home for our own experiments. We could leave the toxic chromium mixtures for the experts and opt for soy milk and vinegar instead.

I couldn’t rave about Nicholas’ approach enough, minimum lecturing, learning by doing. I highly recommend you take her workshop; you even come away with your own eco dyed silk scarf. Here are a few Eureka moments I had during the workshop, I hope this will encourage you to try doing some eco dyeing yourself. Perhaps this can be your reminder to be inspired? I’d love to see what you come up with.

All the equipment you need is a cooking pot, bucket, steamer and tongs; but save these for eco dyeing, food and dye don’t mix even if it is natural

A mordant helps the dye bond with the fibre, some dyes like eucalyptus contain their own. Although natural dyes are doomed to fade over time, sun and water, a mordant will make colours stronger and last longer. Just add the mordant to a bucket of water and soak. You can pre-mordant whole batch of material, dry it and use it a later date. You can also soak and dry the cloth a few times for extra strength. Watch this space for experiments!

Alum (Aluminium sulphate found in hardware pool department) + cream of tartar (grocery store) is what we used for animal fibres, they are classified as “protein fibre” and take colour more easily

Humble old unsweetened soy milk adds protein to cellulose fibres so the dye sticks. This is an interesting post on cellulose fibres and eco dyeing

Colours will differ depending on the fabric you use, creating colour swatches is a fantastic way to keep track.

When boiled carrot tops create lovely yellow-green colours

Purple cabbage provided a brilliant purple

Eucalyptus leaves have a huge array of colours and can even vary between seasons in the same tree or even from leaves harvested on different sides of the tree! We achieved lovely reddish colours.

Some plants will surprise you with their dye colour, brilliant coloured flowers may have a different colour such as red marigolds being yellow or no colour at all blue hydrangeas hardly left an imprint at all.

You can even change the colour of the fabric after it has been dyed by bathing it in a few teaspoons of a Modifier in water.

The simplest way of modifying the colour is by changing the pH from acidic to alkaline or vice versa. We tried vinegar and washing soda (grocery)

Iron darkens, copper adds green. (iron sulphate and copper sulphate from nurseries or gardening section of local hardware. We used this to dye a concrete slab in New Mexico!

The longer you soak, boil and leave to dry the stronger the colours. Our steamed bundles didn’t have super strong leaf prints because after steaming we only left them an hour or so before unravelling, would be great to see the results of leaving for a few weeks. It’s an exercise in patience!

Do you have any other hints? What passions have you indulged in recently?

cloth-soaking-mordant-alum-animal-products-soy-milk-plant-based-add-protein

vinegar-washing-soda-modifiers-acidic-alkaline

Travel

blue mountains, black earth

December 28, 2013 6 Comments

As we descended the beast of the Blue Mountains growled, calling lighting from slate skies. The fluorescent green of regrowth jarred against charred trunks and the orange of crisp leaves. Despite the devastation, life continued, but there were no birds, no animals, no sound but the roaring of thunder echoing through the valley.

Dry, heat rose from rocks that suddenly became slippery with hot sticky rain. Then, the hail began. It melted instantly in the hot air filling the valley with steaming fog, perhaps we were not welcome.

We clattered down past rainforest tree ferns and damp cliffs and stumbled into intense sunshine, the growling stopped, had we passed the test?

Dylan jumped backward with a yelp. A black shining snake coiled itself lazily by the path. If this was the Blue Mountain beast he was not so scary, but we took a wide detour around the snoozing fellow so as not to offend. Then up, up again to the campsite at the top of the hill where tourists were regaled with stories of the infamous drop bear.

Travel

the grampians

November 27, 2013 2 Comments

[mm-insert-title]

a world away

The wind was blowing fast; along the path patches of sunlight rolled enticingly towards us, accelerated and suddenly vanished just out of reach. We hurriedly hiked to escape the shadows, as we moved upwards trees gave way to low scrub and the view went from metres to miles. The hills rose and fell like a shaggy green pelt, rubbed raw in places to reveal craggy reddish rock. The parasitic trails of humans snailing through the shivering green.

Later in the valley we replaced the howl of the wind with the soft munching of furry jaws. The wallabies gently nibbled, while their coarser cousins spent the afternoon fully dedicated to a good scratch. Standing on hind legs, faces pinched in concentration, nails running over their bellies and backs – a little gang of hairy old men, inhibitions long lost, pot bellies out and proud.
I watched a wallaby with a low furry tum lop closer, then suddenly a tiny bright eyed face appeared behind her forefoot. A surge of pure joy jumped through me, delight is not lost with childhood, just harder to grasp.