Mango & Raspberry Sorbet

It's a very dark and gloomy time of the year in this part of the world. The days are short and the trees are bare. "The sun is spent" (John Donne), "The sedge has wither'd from the lake, And no birds sing" (John Keats), and so on... We haven't had any snow yet to brighten things up, so I'm doing my best to brighten up my world with fabric and dye.

I've made some wonderful discoveries about the Emo dye that I often use, which have helped me get results that are similar to those I've had with Procion MX dye earlier. What a thrill it is to open up a fabric bundle and discover the glorious colour you were hoping for! I could hardly contain myself the other day, when I discovered a way of using Emo with ice cubes.

Below are a few images to feast your eyes upon.

If you want fractured patterns, you need to heat up your Emo dye, and not just leave it batching, as you can do with Procion MX dye. Two months ago I didn't know how to achieve this degree of texture with Emo:

 

And if you recall the unsuccessful shibori shrimp from two years back (I thought it was old dye, but it was really cold dye that was causing the problem), you'll be pleased to see that the shrimp is a lot spicier now. This is done with mokume shibori, and I've sewn the stitches in a spiralling shape.

And the pièce de résistance, as far as I'm concerned, is this successful attempt at ice cube dyeing with Emo. Emo isn't overly fond of cold, but by putting the fabric bundle in a hot water bath instead of batching it on top of the fridge as I usually do with Procion MX dye, I got a wonderful result:

I love the combination of golden yellow and dark pink. Perhaps I should try to make it into a dessert: mango-raspberry sorbet? Yum!

Thanks for visiting and I hope to see you again soon!
- Annika

A Jarful of Fabric Candy

I recently discovered that my favourite key holder was well past its best, and decided to make myself a new one. And while I had my fabrics, iron and sewing machine out I figured I might as well make a whole batch for coming needs. I put them in a glass jar, to cheer myself up in the darkness of late October in Finland. It's like a jarful of fabric candy.

Here are some of them in close-up. I like to use my own hand-dyed and surface designed fabrics in combination with linen.

Now I just need to get enough key rings to finish them.

Thanks for dropping by, and see you again soon!
- Annika

Fabric + Paper = Paper Fabric

I've been preparing a weekend course on how to make paper fabric and how to use it, and today I want to share some of the things I've been working on. Earlier examples of when I've played with paper fabric can be found here and here.

Here's a collection of "raw" paper fabric - that is paper fabric which hasn't been decorated with paint and stitch.

See the one in the middle, with a poppy shape? It's made with papers that I used to clean my stencils after printing poppies and fake script (for this project). Nothing goes to waste! :-)

I've made several kinds of purses, e.g.

and

The red paper fabric in the background later became a notebook cover:

By adding a bit of padding and a soft lining, you can make a cute eyeglass case:

And if you don't like sewing, cut it into strips and weave it into a little basket. The one in the background is made from birch bark, and the other one from paper fabric. Pretty neat, huh? They have a very similar feel to them.

There's just so much you can do with paper fabric! What a great way to recycle some of the paper that you have lying around the house.

Thanks for visiting my blog, and see you again soon!
- Annika

C'est Parfait

My latest experiments with the Emo dyes have been parfait dyeing, but without ice cubes (which I blogged about here). The first version wasn't a great success (I will add images later after the fabrics have been dried and ironed), but the second version, which I whipped up tonight, looks more promising. Yum!

Thanks for dropping by! Stay tuned for the results!
- Annika

I Can Dye Happy Now

One of the dyes that I frequently refer to on this blog is Procion MX dye. It's an easy and versatile dye that I enjoy using. There's just one problem: I can't find it in Finland. So I've looked at some of the dyes that are more easily available to me, and one that seemed well suited for the techniques that I have explored with Procion MX dye is a cold water reactive dye (based on Remazol) by the Finnish company Emo-tuotanto Oy. I have also mentioned this brand before on this blog.

To be honest, when I first started exploring the Emo dyes, I was rather disappointed. I did exactly what I did with the Procion MX dye, but I didn't get the effect I was looking for. What I got was something like what you see on the right, but what I really wanted is what you see on the left.

I assumed that the dye was so different from the Procion MX type that it just wouldn't work in the same way. However, after doing a bit of reasearch and making a few changes to the way I work, I have discovered that it is after all possible to achieve similar effects, and now I can dye happy.

First I did a 12-step gradation with the three primaries:

Then I did a 7-step gradation with a split complementary colour scheme:

And then I did a 5-step gradation with tints and shades:

And I love the results and the simplicity of my new method, which I'll get back to later. For now, I'll just let you feast your eyes on the rainbow that I have created. Looking at my stacks of ironed, neatly folded and colour co-ordinated hand dyes fills me with happiness and calm.

Yes, I was (am) one of those kids who will find great enjoyment and satisfaction in putting all the crayons and coloured pencils in the right order in the box.

The warm half of the rainbow

The cool half

Thanks for visiting!

- Annika

For Some of Us It's Perfectly Normal...

... to look at the baby wipe we just used to clean up our work surface after painting some paper fabric and wonder...

Could I use this for something?

I bet I could. I'll put it aside to dry, and then we'll see.

I'm dyeing to bring you more news soon!
- Annika

Teaching Schedule Autumn 2013

Please note that I've updated my teaching schedule, which you will find under the tabs above. My courses are at the moment held in different locations in Finland, and mainly in the Swedish language. However, I also welcome students who speak Finnish and English to my courses.


Undervisning hösten 2013

Observera att jag har uppdaterat schemat för min undervisning, och du hittar informationen under fliken uppe till vänster. Mina kurser hålls för närvarande på olika orter i Finland och främst på svenska. Deltagare som talar finska eller engelska är dock också varmt välkomna.

- Annika