Horace

My sister had a clean out of her tea drawer.  So I got some of those large tea flower type things that open up in boiling water,  as well as some small hard lumps of tea shoots.

Of course, using tea in any form in the solution is going to produce some colour (brown) and it contains tannin, a natural mordant, so it should promote colour in the silk.

The tea flowers as they came out of the packet

What I call the tea “balls”.

Tea flowers opened in boiling water.

I made a solution of water and the tea flowers.  Lovely reddish brown water.

Three pieces of silk were tightly wrapped with, respectively, brown onion. the tea flowers, and the tea “balls”.  Then simmered in tea flower solution for 30 minutes.

Silk wrapped tightly around tea flowers and boiled in tea flower solution.

Silk wrapped tightly around small tea “balls” and boiled for 30 minutes in tea flower solution

Silk wrapped tightly with brown onion skin and boiled for 30 minutes in tea flower solution.

The three samples are in fact different colours! L to R: tea flowers, brown onion, tea “balls”.

The colour is limited by my technology so this is not the most exciting post I’ve made.

I’m in a dyeing mood, so I’ll just get those four ancient purple carrots out of the crisper.  And that pile of brown onion skins from the slow cooked lamb shanks of last night.  Oh, and the slab of frozen pomegranate skins that Liz gave me last year.  While I’m at it, it’s time I used those frozen avocado skins too.

I was lucky enough to secure four metres of handwoven Cambodian silk organza from Trudi Pollard two nights ago.  Trudi was the guest speaker at the WAFTA meeting but still managed to find time to bring me some silk.

I didn’t do anything to the silk other than rip it into four strips each about 25cm wide and dampen them.

Sliced purple carrot in water before boiling

In my first stainless steel pot I put about a cup full of sliced purple carrots into water and brought them to the boil. Taking one strip of dampened silk organza I placed more purple carrot slices on half, folded the rest of the silk over and then rolled the “sandwich” tightly into a tube, securing it with twine. This was dropped into the purple carrot solution.  I called this Bundle 1.

Silk organza wrapped tightly around carrot rings Bundle 1

In the same pot I put another tightly bound tube of silk but this time the material inside the tube was brown onion skin rather than carrot. This was Bundle 2.

Both bundles were boiled for about fifteen minutes then the heat was turned off and the pot allowed to cool overnight.

Bundle 1 Carrot in carrot after rinsing

Bundle 2: Onions in carrot after rinsing

In a second stainless steel pot I boiled up a couple of cups of chopped avocado skins in water for about fifteen minutes.  Into this I placed Bundle 3, a strip of silk organza wrapped fairly loosely around a solid frozen tube of pomegranate skins, secured at each end with an elastic band.

Bundle 4 also went into this second pot.  It  was a strip of silk organza wrapped tightly with twine around slices of purple carrot. I thought it would be interesting to compare a piece of silk with purple carrot inside boiled in purple carrot solution (Bundle 1) with a similar piece of silk boiled in avocado solution Bundle 4).

Again both bundles 3 and 4 were boiled in the avocado solution for about fifteen minutes then left to cool overnight.

Bundle 3: pomegranate in silk organza boiled in avocado skins

Bundle 4: tightly wrapped carrot boiled in avocado skins.

Bundle 3 was insipid due to not having been tightly bound. So I rewrapped it with tighter bindings and reboiled it in carrot water.  another story.  OK result but not heroic.

The results of Bundles 1, 2, and 4 are, however, quite pleasing and I can see a bojagi piece forming .

Left: Bundle 1 (Carrot in carrot). Top: Bundle 2 (Brown onion in carrot).
Bottom: Bundle 4 (Carrot in avocado).

I took some dark red lilies to my friend Liz’ place a few weeks ago.  Liz returned them to me once they’d died.  She’d torn them up, complete with their yellow stamens, and wrapped them tightly in a piece of silk.  It looks like a 2ply Cambodian hand woven fat quarter.

Resisting the temptation to unroll too quickly, I left the damp lump in its plastic bag for a week.  On removing it yesterday I found a rich embellishment of mossy looking mould.

The white is alive. The brown is the silk and the green is the plastic bag around this ripe parcel!

It took quite a while to rinse, with a lot of vegetable matter for the compost being rescued from the sink drain!

The crusty roll unwrapped.

Lots of colour goes down the drain…

Drain full of “compost” material. This was a fraction of the total.

Finally and after much “picking” with finger nails of bits that had adhered tightly to the silk, I was able to wash in pure soap flakes and press.

Washed, rinsed and pressed. And gorgeous!

The one on the left is pinned to a blanket. This one is in front of a window to let light in.

Thanks Liz!!  Can I use this in another work for the MELD exhibition?