Posts Tagged ‘Bugleweed’
volunteers
~
volunteers
~
I forget to mow.
Volunteers
shoulder in
from every side.
Burnished trumpets of daylilies,
cerulean forget-me-nots,
pagodas of bugleweed
overtake green.
I forget to mow.
~
~
~
All my best,
Jane
colour transfers
As I was preparing my eco-bundles for steaming ( https://nichepoetryandprose.wordpress.com/2014/06/20/an-attempt-at-ecoprinting/ ), I was thinking the words ‘heat’ and ‘steam’ – after 30 years of ironing my husband’s work shirts every morning, these words mean ‘steam iron’ to me. So I wondered if it would be possible to transfer the colour of a flower to cloth using my iron.
~
So far, I have tried two species: Bugleweed (Ajuga reptans) from under our apple trees, and Birdsfoot Trefoil (Lotus corniculatus) from the roadside …
~
basket of Bugleweed
~
I placed the flowers between two layers of cotton, sprayed the material with water and pressed down with the steam iron set on medium. I pressed fairly hard and ironed the cloth/flower sandwich until it was dry. Then I wetted it again and continued until I had transferred the colour …
~
using the steam iron to transfer colour from Birdsfoot trefoil to cotton
~
It took five successive sets of wetting and pressing to obtain the colour. The blues of Bugleweed turned out best …
~
colour transfers from Bugleweed (the pale green in the background is made with leaves from my rosebush)
~
But the yellow colour from petals and stems of the Birdsfoot trefoil also came out well …
~
colour transfers from Birdsfoot trefoil
~
Now I have two new colour patterns to add to my future ‘harvesting colour’ quilt !
~
colour transfers using Bugleweed and Birdsfoot trefoil
~
Copyright 2014 Jane Tims
an attempt at ecoprinting
After our drive to Canterbury over the weekend, I was anxious to capture some of the roadside flower colour in my ‘harvesting colour’ experiments. I decided to try a technique described by India Flint in her book Eco Colour: Botanical Dyes for Beautiful Textiles (Interweave Press, 2010). ‘Ecoprinting’ involves bringing a plant into close contact with a fabric in order to transfer the colour to the cloth. I am very impressed with the effects shown in Eco Colour – prints of leaves, flowers and berries.
~
For my experiment I tried a handful of the Forget-me-nots I collected on our weekend drive …
~
Forget-me-nots in the woods
~
a bundle of the purple Lupins growing along the road in my community …
~
Lupins along the road
~
and a bunch of a ground cover plant growing in my yard, Bugleweed (Ajuga reptans) …
~
Bugleweed in the orchard
~
basket of Bugleweed
~
I only used small samples of cloth … my idea is to use these ‘patches’ to make a little quilt to show the results of my ‘colour harvest’. I arranged a few of the flowers, both petals and leaves, inside the cloth …
~
Forget-me-nots on cotton
~
Lupin petals and leaves on cotton
~
Bugleweed on cotton
~
Then I folded the cloth in half, enclosing the flowers like a sandwich …
~
flowers folded in cotton
~
and rolled the cloth up tightly …
~
rolling the bundle tightly
~
and tied it with cotton thread …
~
flower and cotton bundles
~
I put my bundles in a wire basket and steamed them for an hour …
~
flower and cotton bundles steaming (as usual I have thrown in a bit of woods and sky)
~
After cooling, I opened the bundles, discarded the leaves and flowers, and rinsed the cloth. I was quite pleased with the results. After ironing, I have a pale array of colour. The Bugleweed left a definite lime green. The Lupin a more indefinite green and pale violet. The Forget-me-nots left a faint violet-grey.
~
pale colour
~
I did not get the flower and leaf impressions I expected, but I will keep trying. There are so many variables, steaming time and ‘unbundling’ time among them. I do hope to see that lovely lime green again!!!
~
Copyright 2014 Jane Tims
nichepoetryandprose 