Acorns keep falling on my head! Time to move the fibers studio indoors!!

What a glorious summer to dye fiber outside! Heat and sunshine! Dreadful for our gardens, but rust printing, eco-printing, and indigo dyeing on fabric and handmade paper was excellent! Back in August, as a way of showing my appreciation to Pat Vivod for teaching me how to rust print, I invited her for a day in my garden studio to indigo dye.  What a grand time we had. See more about our adventure on her August 13, 2012 blog post, Sentimental Pentimento: Fun in the Shade

The summer indigo studio, hammock ready and waiting.  Now, just a memory.

Pat Vivod indigo dying

Pat Vivod resist clamping pre-rusted silk before dying in indigo vat

Shibori and clamp resist cloth hydrating before dying in indigo

Pat Vivod's indigo on pre-rusted silk

Indigo oxidizing on cotton

Indigo on pre-rusted cotton

You may remember from my posts, or Pat's posts about my rusting the above fabric at her studio.

Because of the drought, the grass really was this color

Here it is on my clothesline (and in the photo above) after two rounds of shibori resist dyeing in the indigo vat. Looking forward to using it at the beach the next time I visit my daughter, Betsy, at her condo in Florida!

But now that fall is upon us, and the acorns are falling from the tree over the vat, it was time to say farewell to fair weather dyeing by moving the vat inside to the basement studio ... until next year!

Rust Printing with Pat Vivod

What does one do for excitement in Illinois when the summer +100F temps continue to soar, play in water of course. Not in a sparkling cool pool, oh no! But with a garden hose, a few boxes of tea, and rust!!

Pat and I met at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville  while she was working on her MFA in Printmaking and Textiles and I was completing my BFA in Art & Design/Textiles and BS in K-12 Art Education.  For the next few years, we exhibited together during Art East, Madison County's annual art tour. Pat would be displaying the most beautiful silk scarfs and large wall hangings, all dyed and printed with rust, tea, berries and walnuts, while my art focused on handmade paper from plant fiber and book arts. At the time, I had just started teaching art at Oakville Middle School while working on my first masters degree. During each exhibition, I listened intently to Pat's newest discovery, and even managed to write a few notes on rust dying in my journal, but didn't have the time, or brain space, to take on another art form. Yet in July of 2012, I finished my second masters on a Friday and planted myself in Pat's garden studio bright and early the next Monday morning. What a glorious way to celebrate!!

Silk scarf folded and wrapped on metal pipe

Leaf resist pattern exposed as scarf was unwrapped

My first silk scarf - Pattern made from leaf resist, tea, vinegar, and rust

At Pat's suggestion, I had purchased and read India Flint's Eco Colour, as well as Jenny Dean's Wild Colour. As an avid gardener for many years, many of the plants used in dying were already in my garden. Pat had been experimenting with Eco Dyeing after she had taken a workshop with India in 2011. While we were waiting for the silk to rust, we also Eco Dyed a few bundles of silk, wool and cotton. Those bundles were put aside for three weeks to cure and will be opened on a future blog post. 

With a basic understanding of chemistry and experience with an indigo vat, I scribbled down notes as Pat shared her expertise. For more information about Pat's beautiful artwork, read her blog, Sentimental Pentimento.

My second silk scarf - Pattern from leaf resist, tea, vinegar and rust on indigo dyed silk scarf

There are many variants when rust printing. I am just a novice, but did learn that no two pieces will be the same and the overall design depends on: the type of fiber; how the silk is folded; where the leaves or other materials are placed inside or on top as a resist; the various types of tea used; where the tea is sprinkled on the silk; how the folded silk is wrapped on the metal; the amount of rust on the metal; the humidity; the day/night temperature; the length of time the silk is wrapped in plastic on the metal; and any other berries or plant fiber used in the design that may add their own colors.

Pat Vivod washing tea and leaf fiber from one of her silk scarfs

I brought along a hemp blend cloth given to me by my English sister-in-law, Wendy Evans, who picked it up on one of her around-the-world adventures. It probably came from Africa. Pat allowed me to pick out any rusted metal I wanted to use and I chose five of the sun bursts seen below. 

Farm equipment used to make sunbursts on hemp blend cloth

Layers: plastic - metal sunbursts - hemp blend cloth soaked in vinegar - tea - salt - more vinegar - plastic - bricks and walnuts to hold down plastic

Bricks and walnuts hold down plastic overnight

Tea and rust print on cloth uncovered and placed on table to hose off with water

Final print on hemp blend cloth from Africa (turtles pre-printed on cloth)

After three days in Pat's garden studio, I took my supplies, cloth and notes back home and set up my own garden studio out of a few make-shift crates, a skid, a few bricks and a bit of plastic.

Although I don't have the cool rusted gadgets that Pat owns, I found a few things sitting around that had plenty of rust - our burn barrel, the grill found on big trash day, the four claw foot tub feet from a yard sale, and bits of pipe and chain from who knows where. I began with a piece of pale yellow silk from my stash. It was smooth on one side and bumpy on the other.  

I soaked the silk in vinegar and folded it lengthwise as I attempted to make a few designs with used Earl Grey tea leaves, unused Lipton Tea leaves, fresh sassafras leaves, and boiled down walnut "tea" before I clipped it shut with clothespins long enough to tie it to the burn barrel. Once it was tied in place, I covered the barrel with plastic and waited about five hours. The temps were well over 100F. 

Silk cloth soaked in vinegar, folded with tea  and leaves then wrapped in plastic for about 5 hours in 100F+ sunshine

Removing the hemp twine 

Twine marks and rust

Before it was opened

My husband, Peter, helping to open the folds and remove the leaves

Leaf resist, black tea and rust print

Opened cloth before rinsing

Cloth rinsed with water to remove tea and leaves

Silk washed and dried on the line. 

Pat was a wonderful, patient teacher. I was so excited by the success of rust printing on silk, I decided to spend the next few days testing rust on paper. But that just have to wait for the next blog post.

The Quest for Doc Martin - Part 1

Since the ITV television show, Doc Martin is filmed in Port Isaac, Cornwall, we decided to drive along the north coast to the 14th c. village to take a few photos on location. What we discovered when we arrived was the cast and crew shooting Series Five!

Television crew's vehicles on the beach in the harbor in Port Isaac

Port Isaac, known as Port Wenn on the TV show, is a working fishing village on the northern, Atlantic coast of Cornwall. We arrived before lunch with plans to take a few photos for Pat Vivod, who is not only an amazing textile artist through organic printing and dyeing (see her blog Sentimental Pentimento), she is a devoted Doc Martin fan. While Pat was in a workshop in St. Louis with India Flint learning even more about the chemistry of organic dyeing, we decided to travel on a quest for Doc Martin on Pat's behalf with one of her silk scarves in the starring role. Since much of my work in handmade paper is influenced by the textures and colors of Cornwall, it is easy to see why I purchased this scarf (below) from Pat's collection. See if you can find it in the photos as it travelled through the village.

 The Pat Vivod silk scarf on beach pebbles

It was obvious that Port Isaac residents and guests knew that the television crew was shooting all week, yet the mood was very laid back about the experience. For example, the crew had prepared three or four small vignettes outside businesses which included a handwritten sign informing us that the leeks, beautifully displayed outside the green grocer's (actually an art gallery), were not for sale. As people walked by the display, we repeatedly saw women reach for the leeks, read the sign, then tell their friends, "Too bad it's for filming, they are such lovely leeks!"

Film set of "green grocer" outside a real art gallery (scarf in basket)

Film set of "green grocer" looking down street towards harbor

By the time we walked through very narrow streets and reached the harbor wall, we learned that the crew was currently shooting outside the "Large Restaurant" (actually a private home) above the cliffs along the harbor wall. 

"Large Restaurant,"center home above rock cliffs along harbor wall

Lunch scene from Series Five (Martin Clunes and Caroline Catz sitting at table; 
Ian McNeice standing)

Martin Clunes (Doc Martin) , Caroline Catz (Louisa Glasson) and Ian McNeice (Bert Large), along with a variety of extras were in the scene. Since it actually was lunchtime, filming stopped for everyone to eat, which gave us the chance to pop into the Golden Lion, often used as a set during Series One, for a pint and a ploughman for Peter and a zucchini & stilton pastie for me. 

After lunch, we walked the cliff path above where the filming had resumed to get a closer look at the crew through the garden gate. This also gave us the opportunity to photograph "Doc Martin's house" on the show - the third cottage up the path on the left.

While the show's audio tech could probably eliminate most background sounds from the beach below the "restaurant" set, each time a fishing boat returned, all production ceased until the boats had put down anchor and off loaded their cargo.

Filming the lunch scene took more than three hours before the director called cut and gave a thumbs up to the crew waiting on the harbor beach below. Because Doc Martin is not a period piece, it was almost impossible to tell the locals from the actors as they walked through the village to the next location at the "Port Wenn Cobbler."

Caroline Catz (Louisa Glasson on show) and Martin Clunes (Doc Martin) finished with lunch scene

Caroline Catz (Louisa Glasson on show) walking past Aquarium

Having no idea how long it might take to prepare the next scene, we walked back up the hill towards our car, past the Cobbler set. Suddenly, we realized the teenage girls and the gentleman pushing the pram surrounding us were not locals or tourists, but extras in the next scene. Not knowing how long it might take before filming began again, I decided to pop into a shop while the director talked to the crew and extras. Little did we know we would soon have the chance to meet one of the main actors.

Read Quest for Doc Martin - Part 2 for the next in the Series!