Passive Solar Fabric Dyeing

Passive Solar Dyeing

The weather this week has been very unusual for the Midwest. It's barely gone below 90° F at night, and, with humidity, the highs have been greater than 101° F (32° C and 38° C, respectively). I decided to capture some of this free energy by dyeing linen thread using passive solar heat. Like a slightly toxic, colorful version of sun tea, if you will.

The dark blue enamel makes it hard to tell that the dye is wine red.

The setup is very simple. You just need direct sunlight, a dye container, and a clear or dark colored cover. Anything you will never use for food in the future and don't mind being stained will work as a dye pot, and a piece of glass, clear plastic, or even trash bags will work as the cover. I used my trusty enameled dye pot and a clear bin I had lying around.

Capture the summer heat to dye yarn or fabric.

I wound my linen thread into a skein and loosely tied it with some blue warp scraps. Then I plopped the skein in the premixed Rit dye and put the cover on top to concentrate the sunlight and to keep mosquitoes and thirsty critters out. I left the skein in the dye bath all day and overnight, moving it to keep it in direct sunlight, and stirring every few hours.

Here's what it looked like after rinsing.

Not a perfect coverage, but good enough for the project I have in mind. Dyeing it outside definitely helped me keep the inside of my house cool! Next time I'll pre-soak the skein, tie it looser, and stir it more often and see if that helps get the color more even.

Quite a successful experiment in saving energy and making the killer heat useful!

The Basil that Refused to Die

Last year I bought a cute little basil plant at my local farmers market. A winkled old gypsy lady sold it to me. I heard that she had pulled up in a brightly painted wagon as a cloud covered the sun, and though she made much money selling both homey and mysterious herbs, she left and was never seen again.

Or maybe I've been reading too much cliched fantasy lately.

Okay, I bought it at a perfectly ordinary tent from a perfectly ordinary woman, but the dang basil plant is quite magical all on its own. Last summer, I did nothing right for the poor plant. I picked leaves from its base, not from its tips. I watered it haphazardly and not at all often. Then, insults of insults, I dug it up after the first frost, put it in a pot, and brought it inside. In my ignorance, I put it in an east-facing window. It lasted until November then kicked the bucket. However, by that time I had cloned it—by accident.

When I brought the plant inside, I had trimmed off a few stalks. I didn't feel like hanging them up to dry right then, so I put them in a vase, set it on the dining room table, and forgot about them. A week later, I noticed that the leaves hadn't drooped or withered. A week after that, I saw that it had grown roots. A month or two after that (around the time the parent plant died), I decided that I had better pot the poor thing. After two months with no soil, nutrition, or strong daylight, you would think that I'd have a sickly, slow-growing or even dying plant.

Third generation cloned basil sprouting roots.

\

Nope, I put it in the south window in the kitchen, and it thrived. Oh did it thrive. It blossomed, it grew through the blinds, and, finally, it took over the window. I kept trimming the stalks, and they just came back, twice as strong. I'd forget to water it for two weeks (this happened repeatedly), then I would frantically poor water on it, certain it would never recover. In a few hours it was back to being it's perky, happy self.

So this summer, I take it outside and bury back out in the garden. I don't waste time on letting it adjust slowly to the violent rainstorms and lack of climate control; I just plant it. After all, it doesn't care, why should I?

A week later, and its even greener and healthier than before. Magic, I tell you Magic.

Confessions of a Gardening Addict

I do not have a green thumb. Through a combination of ignorance, bad timing, and both over- and under-watering, I have never had anything I would call a real harvest from my garden, other than the Basil Plant that Will Not Die, Why Won't the Sunflowers Go Away? and Where Did All This Catnip Come From?

One year I decided to grow zucchini the summer that everyone's zucchini failed (mine was no exception), and the next year featured sweet peppers that never got larger than my very small fists (though my peppers were slightly larger than my friends'). I have catnip and sunflowers growing as gorgeous weeds, but I killed my supposedly hardy mint plant. My father could grow tomatoes on a west facing balcony in the most polluted part of Tokyo, yet I can't get a tomato to bear a single fruit in a sunny backyard. Don't even ask about my dismal strawberry harvest. Or the potatoes, or the green beans...well, you get the picture.

Plants seem to thrive despite my care—not because of it. I can't grow clover, but my “rescued” rosebushes are thriving on neglect. The year I deliberately planted sunflowers, none got taller than two feet. The next year I had a rogue sunflower in my catnip bed that towered over me by a good foot or so. This year I have “volunteer” sunflowers growing everywhere, even in the cracks of the concrete patio.

With this less than stellar background, you might not be surprised by my poor, pitiful pea harvest.

Between an unseasonably warm spring and only planting ten or so seeds from a “expired” seed packet, the fact that I got any peas was a blessing.

What surprised me was how delicious they were! Juicy, sweet as sugar, melt in your mouth when raw. I gobbled those suckers right up. And in a few months, I'll be digging up the green beans and hoping I can sneak in another harvest in the fall. South Dakota winters can start...mmm...anytime between mid-September to late November, so we'll see.

Extreme Spinning: Alien Seed Pod Thread

A while back, I received a mysterious package from my good friend Katie the Ninja (visit her blog Okra of Doom for daring adventures of the gardening kind). The phrase, “Hana, you will never guess what's in this,” adorned the outside.

The mysterious package and contents, along with my trusty Navajo spindle.

 

She was right! Inside was a letter, a comic, and a large ball of fluffy softness. It was like the essence of smooth silk and fluffy kittens. You can almost imagine it purring. Which is why I was slightly alarmed when I read her letter and discovered that the fluff had been extricated from a alien seed pod found growing on a tree in California. The tree has gray bark with green veins and thick, bendy limbs. Any information on it, oh internet wanderer, would be appreciated.

The discovery of the alien seed pod fluff, by Katie.

The fibers of this fluff are quite short. I don't know if I can spin this....

 

However, despite my reservations (what if aliens show up demanding their seed pod padding back?) she had sent it to me to see if the fluff could be spun, and I rose to the challenge.

My trusty spindle ready for action.

Quick hand twisted roving. I may need to borrow the neighbor's wool combs...

It attaches easily to the leader thread, a good sign.

And we have thread! Alien thread...

And it could! It can be spun!

Happy Birthday, Katie!

Easy DIY Light Box for $15 or Less

or How to Build Your Own Tracing Table in Seven Easy Steps!

Step 1: Want to own a light box (also know as a tracing table and not to be confused with a soft box).

Step 2: Realize that light boxes cost anywhere from $50 to $200. If you can afford it, skip the rest of the steps and go buy a light box.

Step 3: Decide to build your own. If you have wood or metal working tools, experience (or the courage) with working with wiring, and perhaps some soldering skills, find a good tutorial on the web and go build your own. It will probably cost more than $15 but hopefully less than $200.

Step 4: Hunt in thrift stores until you find a glass topped table. It will probably be around $10.

Step 5: Aim a lamp so that the light shines through the glass towards your eyes. A desk lamp with a bendy neck works best. You may already have one on your desk! If not, hunt one up in a thrift store for $5.

Step 6: Optional. In order to not shine a bright light directly into your eyes, you may want to frost the glass using a special spray paint or use etching paste. Warning: both are toxic and the etching paste can seriously burn you. Follow all safety instructions. You can also glue or tape vellum (pricey), tracing paper (somewhat pricey), or parchment/baking paper (cheap and in every grocery store) t 0o the side of the glass you are not tracing on. If you want to be very frugal, just make sure you keep what you are tracing directly over the light.

Step 7: Trace to your heart's content!


Important Safety Information and Disclaimer (aka Use Your Common Sense):

The table you purchase may not be at optimal drawing height. Either raise the table so that it is or take frequent breaks (around every 15 to 30 minutes). Repetitive motion injuries are no joke, long lasting, and quite painful. Also, the table you buy will probably be topped with glass. Use common sense and don't put excessive pressure on it or play slap down card games. Follow this tutorial at your own risk!

Thorne Scratch: Part 1

UPDATE: Now finished! It only took a year and a half...

Remember last Tuesday's post about practicing acrylics? I'm not quite finished yet with the painting (I just picked up some extra small brushes, yay!), but here's my progress so far.

First, may I reacquaint you with the rough digital mock up?

Stock credits can be found here.

 Okay, here's my real progress:

It is still very much a work in progress. I like the face, though I may need to darken the nostrils and tone down the earlobes. The head-hair may need some highlights and the yellow beads need...something. The braid needs work. Don't get me started on the hands and the "stage left" elbow. I was waiting on getting tiny brushes so I could do the details justice. The shadows of her neck may need to be darkened, and definitely her belly button. I don't have her arm tattoos or the thorn canes up yet. The tats need to wait until I have her arms finalized, and I'm mainly being a coward about the vines. I hate painting over things. But I will preserver!

I would love some tips, critiques, and advice! This painting has a long way to go.

This painting would not be nearly as good without the lovely stock of Jagged-eye (who's art can also be found at DMAC Studios).  Donato Giancola's excellent "mud puddle palette" method of painting skin saved my sanity. I also read Muddy Colors (the blog where I found the tutorial) while waiting for paint to dry. More than ten excellent artists contribute to it. If you're interested in illustration, realism, making a living as an artist, tips on setting up a healthy, ergonomic studio space (including in a hotel bathroom), go read their blog.

Lessons learned:

• I'm not as bad at acrylics as I thought, yay!
• Creating the rock texture was fun and involved paint, water, black ink, and salt. Some of the lighter sections of the rock are salt lime, and the rock sparkles in person. *insert vampire joke here*
• I desperately want to outline things, even when it would unattractively flatten the painting. I need to work on slowly letting go of that crutch, at least in acrylics. Or adopting an Art Nouveau style ;)
• However, using heavy outlines on the sketch then over-painting enabled me to do the fine details in the face with a fairly large brush. Most of the shadows in the face are outlines with a light wash/glaze over them.
• Hands and skin are very, very hard to paint.
• Night skies, however are easy with some paint spatter!

And a cool animated GIF of my progress from line art to now:

Quick run down of my process:

• sketch image directly onto 11" x 14" canvas board
• tape off sides (the painting measures 6" x 11")
• ink pencil sketch
• do a yellow ocher wash over entire painting
• paint sky, moon, and spatter on stars (the fun part)
• paint lights and darks of boulder
• go crazy with a wadded up paper towel, paint, ink, and salt
• paint skin while cursing how fast the paint dries and mainly failing at wet in wet painting. What I get for relying on oil painting tutorials.
• paint hair while wishing desperately for something smaller than a fine-liner brush

Disclaimer: Wen Spencer still owns everyone in Tinker-ville, including Thorne Scratch. Baen (they of the talented marketing folks) are also involved.

Those that can, Do; Those who can't, Teach

I have good news and bad news, internets.

Good news: I now have a job teaching 2nd-5th graders art once a week for a month, and perhaps adults as well, through the Vermillion Area Arts Council. A paid, art related job, yes!

Bad news: I'm not quite comfortable with opaque paint, aka anything that is not watercolor. The classes I'll be teaching focus on watercolors but will also include tempura for the kids and acrylics for the adults. I've worked with both before, but I'm not nearly as comfortable with them as I am with conte or watercolors. Classes start on March 13th.Which means I have exactly three weeks to cram as much knowledge of acrylics into my head as possible.

Challenge accepted.

In between weaving and pet portrait commissions, I have been longing to do some fan art. I like to experiment with new media when I do fan art because there is no "portfolio pressure." I'm unlikely to sell a piece of fan art or to put it into my professional portfolio. Also, the character, setting, and situation are already predetermined. I just have to pick a scene and/or character that suits my fancy.

Having just read Elfhome, Wen Spencer's newest sci-fi/fantasy romp of elven deliciousness, I decided to do a portrait of one of the characters, Thorne Scratch on Stone. Since I read the advanced reader copy ($15 until July 1st, then $5), I want to do a portrait that includes no spoilers. I decided on a literal interpretation of Thorne Scratch's name.

Here's my (really) rough digital mock up:

Things that should be in the mock up but I'm too lazy to do with a mouse: intricate black spell tattoos on her arms and thorns on the multiflora rose canes (aka the red things). And maybe black or yellow beads in her hair? I don't remember them in the book, but most folks with her job have them.

What are your opinions, before I put paint to canvas-board?

The beautiful stock is provided by the following:

Woman by Jagged-eye, who can also be found at DMAC Studios
Stone texture by ShinimegamiStock

Thank you!

Disclaimer: Thorne is owned by and copyright Wen Spencer. As is anything Tinker-Wolf-Elfhome related. I just visit, a lot.

Winter Picnic: Plarn Placemats

Today there was snow! And I finished my plarn placemats (which are up for sale on Etsy). These combined in an awesome winter photoshoot. Not that I'm a professional photographer by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm trying to use natural lighting and color theory. Thank you, Pink Lady Apples, for being both colorful and delicious.

Technical information:
Plain weave
Warp: Royal Blue Cotton Rug Warp
Weft: white plarn ("yarn" made from plastic bags)
Pics per inch: 10 ppi for the 1' blue warp stripes; 5 ppi for the middle
Size: 12.5" x 17 " (18" including fringe)
Number: 4 placemats
Each end has a half inch solid cotton header and footer.
Finished by knotting the ends to make the fringe.
Loom: Kromski Harp Rigid Heddle loom (30 " wide)

(In plain English,  the skinny blue threads are the warp, or what goes on the loom first. The weft is the thicker white yarn and is added while weaving. PPI means how many warp threads there are per inch.)

Lessons learned:

•  Leave more warp free for fringe than two inches. Two inches is really hard to knot.
• For plarn, 10 ppi would be good for emphasizing the warp but can look messy when the knots in the plarn disrupt the pattern. 5 ppi is perfect: flexible enough to shrug off the knots.
• I miss the beater on harness looms, but I had a wide toothed comb that I beat trouble spots with, and it worked out.
• Might make the header and footer only 1/4" next time. The cotton weft takes a lot longer to weave with than plarn.

Magic, Wonder, and Valentine's Day

Hello there fellow internet traveler. Welcome to my blog of magic and wonder! Well, mostly art and weaving, but surely there's a bit of magic and wonder in that right?

Quick intro to my life: My name is Hana (hah-nah, Japanese for flower), and I currently live in South Dakota but have in the past lived in Japan (where I picked up the name and a love of rice and stir fry), California, Georgia, and North Carolina. Surprisingly, my parents were not in the military: they were English teachers. I've just graduated from college with a spiffy art major degree and am launching myself in to the wild world of Making A Living Through Art, whoot! My focus is fantasy art, but I also love to weave and garden, so you will be seeing lots of art, craftiness, and growing things.

Whew! In more current news, in celebration of Valentine's Day, I just posted some cute, somewhat Japanese themed ACEOs up on my Etsy page. Check them out!

Here are some images to whet your appetite:

Dragons Kiss

Ginkgo Spirit

Sweet Nothings