Posts Tagged ‘eco prints’
harvesting colour – onion skins in a pickle jar
According to India Flint (Eco Colour: Botanical Dyes for Beautiful Textiles, Interweave Press, 2010) the principal ingredient in any natural dyeing project is time (and patience). Now, while I am still getting organized, I have decided to begin with a simple project that can take all the time it needs.
I have chosen a cotton shirt for this project. I wore it for a couple of years and loved its iridescent buttons, rows of ruffles and embroidered details. Then it became stained and I put it away.
~
my 100% cotton shirt
~
Today, I scattered the onion skins I have saved across its surface – some from Yellow Onions and some from Red Onions. As I worked, I sprayed apple cider vinegar to wet the fabric. Then I rolled it up tightly and poked it into a big pickle jar. For at least a month, I will leave the jar to sit on my window sill and cook in the sun. If it starts to grow mold, I am going to stuff it in the freezer. The biggest challenge was getting all that material to fit in the jar!
~
materials for my onion skin dyeing project – the platter is so you cannot see my messy kitchen …
~
all I can say is ‘yum’ …
~
If you hear of a smelly house for sale in rural New Brunswick, you will know something went terribly wrong. I will show you the results, as well as the poem this generates, in about a month’s time …
~
detail of the machine embroidery on my cotton shirt
~
Copyright 2014 Jane Tims
nichepoetryandprose 