Packages

Reinaldo just come home from town with two packages for me.

One from my friend Angela, who used to live here in Osa, but who has now embarked upon a different journey, and is studying to be a vet in Winsconsin. And she's going to be a great vet! She sends me alum, soda ash, urea, and Yogi teas. Better not confuse them! Thanks Angela. This is going to be very helpful in the course of the next few weeks.

P.S. Good job we didn't get pulled aside for suspected traffiking... this being Latin America and all ;}


















A package to dye for from Angela Braun ;]

The second package comes from our blog friend Suzanna Klein. A lovely selection of patchworking cloths, threads, buttons, a tape measure, quilting needles, one of her gorgeous embroidered bees which you can see more of here, one of her own lovely cards and a couple of pieces of her shibori. She is learning online from shibori goddess Glennis Dolce. Thank you so much for your generosity, Suzanna. These are lovely gifts and will be greatly enjoyed. I'm amazed just how quickly this arrived!


















Sewing supplies donated to A Common Thread from Suzanna Klein.

Natural Dyes: Gavilana

Yesterday, I did a short post(!) on experimenting using the leaves of the native plant "Gavilana", Neurolaena lobata (Asteraceae), and I wasn't very pleased with the color while it was in the pot. I left the whole lot stewing over night with the intention of putting it out in the sun for a few days. But I decided I'd go ahead and rinse the cloths this morning. So now I can share my results with you.















What's on line this morning.















Cotton weave and cotton and hemp cloth















Synthetic and peachskin cotton mix (?) and unbleached cotton.















Silk weave. Tie-dyed.















Damask type cotton (from an thrifted pillow case slip) with shibori effects.















Unbleached cotton and damask type cotton (from an thrifted pillow case slip) with shibori effect.

Ok, so I admit it, you were right! It was successful. Mostly! But your golden yellows have a fair hint of sea algae-green to them. I would like to find a way to moderate that and bring up the bluer tones. But it definately works! So, given the ease with which this plant grows here, I'd say we're in business ;}

Last night I stitched some more on this.















A shashiko-syled pond patch, stitched with 2 strands of cream colored DCM thread, on upcycled denim. Part of my next bag-ular creation.

Turned out just peachy!

A while back, before Christmas time, I started some solar dying experiments. Some worked out pretty well, given that I didn't use any mordant (this year I'm going to try that!). Here's one that I untied yesterday. It was dyed using bark from a local tree species (can't remember which now, will ask husband about that and add the name later) and by wrapping small sections of the cloth around little pebbles and tying them with string, (which probably has some lovely-sounding technical name, except I haven't learnt it yet!) I don't know what I had expected, but it turned out a lovely soft rusty peach color.



















It was fun when I unwrapped it... looked like a volcanic clothscape.



















Or... belly buttons!















This is what it looked like once ironed. Very subtle color variations and little moon-flowers. Have some dusky-peachy-rose colored DMC thread. Might see how I go with that today. If I can find the sun-cream I might stitch in the garden even.













I like this... it goes well with today's cloth!


Arlee Barr kindly informed me that the technique is part of what's called Shibori. I've been admiring this technique on other people's pages, but hadn't got that the pebble-wrapping bit was part of it. If you're interested in finding out more about this traditional art, then you should definately check out this link, to where master clothmaker, Jude Hill, has a plethera of posts relating to the subject, with some fabulous examples, great explainations and links to others who are far more skilled at Shibori than I probably ever will be! :)