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New designs are now at The Stonehouse Gallery in Warrandyte. I have been creating new vessels using fabrics dyed and printed using local gum leaves. The fabrics are chiefly silks. The first vessel has gum blossoms and leaves spread over it. The second vessel highlights the beautiful gum leaf prints with Kantha stitch embellishment.

Use the vessels purely for decorative purposes or, place a glass inside, and put in fresh or dried gum leaves or flowers.

Silk Scarves.

For their delicious textile exhibition, The Stonehouse Gallery asked for some eco dyed scarves. On some I hand stitched beautiful pieces of silk onto the scarves. On the one featured, I hand stitched a Kantha stitch around the beautiful gum leaf prints.

Phone and Glasses Pouches.

These little pouches can be used for glasses, keys, cards and phone. There is one pocket with a button or Velcro fastening and another pocket at the front for slipping in your glasses. The strap is long enough to be slipped over your shoulder. As my strong interest is the Australian flora and fauna this again, features in my designs. A number have been hand-painted with Lumiere paint. This has a pearly finish. The pouches are washable.

Further pouches feature my screen prints and lino cuts.

Wattle design using Lumiere. Wombats screen print. Honey possum lino cut print.

More pouches were created featuring the eco prints. These are mainly on seedy silk. Silk and wool in particular, take the eco prints well.

The colours of the various leaves differ, depending on the time of year the leaves were found. The straps are made from cord I dyed at the same time as the silks.

The prices of the pouches $25. Prices of the vessels range from $95 to $75. The silk scarves are $75.

I am one member of the Natural Wonders. We are a group who have been working with local flora to produce Dyes and Prints on fabrics and fibres. On the last weekend of October we are holding an exhibition and sale in The Old Flour Mill 17 Kirkland St Euroa. The Old Flour Mill is on the Western side of Kirkland St. The Caravan Park is to the East.

There will be up-cycled garments, fabric vessels, coiled baskets, journals, scarves, handbags, brooches and framed works. We are aiming to have lots of items under $50. This will cover those looking for lovely gifts and keepsakes of Australian flora. The inspiration for the works has begun with the eco dyeing, however other colours and fibres have been introduced to complement the designs.

I have been dyeing cords and threads in the eco dye pots. Besides using the threads in my hand-stitching, I have added them to the coiled baskets.

 

This little coil basket/pot has had the cord dyed with gum leaves and copper mordant. Extra threads have been wound around the cord as I have sewn it together. I finished off the pot with a free-motion stitched gum leaf, stitched over pieces of eco dyed silk. In some of the other bowls, I have put silk gum leaves on the inside.

 

 

In one of the bowls, the design has been created with Inktense pencils, two others have silk gum leaves added.

On the fabric vessels, the silks and cottons have been eco dyed. The shape has been constructed with bag felt. This makes sewing easier, as the machine needle copes with the density of the bag felt. Some other things I tried did not work so well or, whilst the machine needle might go through, hand stitching was a problem. These two vessels have been designed to reflect the flora used in their creation.

The vessel on the left, has a southern blue gum design worked over it. This particular gum prints and dyes beautifully. The leaves can be over 30 cm long and lend themselves to exciting designs.

The silvery vessel has been dyed with Banksia blossoms. Once the blossoms have turned brown they pull apart easily and the little stamens give a lovely print. I have machine stitched (free motion) the design around the vessel. The bright russet inside the seed pods is a rayon thread.

 

 

The little bowls can be used for Jewellery, keepsakes and treasures. The fabric vessels can be enjoyed as artworks and/or slip in a glass to hold flowers.

The exhibition is open from 10 am – 4 pm. It adjoins an eatery so drop in to view our artworks and then enjoy a coffee and cake.