Find your child from a distance

A couple of really bright children's sets.  In case your toddler tries to escape, you should put them in something really bright to make it easier to spot them.  Plus, these are really cute with the safari animals on them.

Wildness

This is one of my interpretations of a Green Man or wild man to go with Mother Nature or Earth Mother.

When I did a sample and held it up I asked my husband if it reminded him of my Dad.  He said "I wasn't going to say that."

Sailing on a green sea

While I haven't been busy posting, I have been busy creating.  We moved this spring and immediately started remodeling.  That is my excuse.  Not that I couldn't have gotten out my stuff to take pics of finished work.

When waxing something I like to use a flexible cutting board to keep the wax from getting all over the table.  It is easy to clean off but the wax doesn't smear on the next scarf or shirt so I don't have to clean it every time.  And I prefer a colored cutting board as it makes it easier to see the wax I've put down.  Which helps so I don't miss any spots.  You can see in the pictures how the color of the board shows when the wax is applied.

Bronze

I'm really happy with how this turned out.  The colors work really well together.  The chocolate brown really looks like metallic bronze with the luster of the silk Crepe de Chine. 

It is Jacquard red label black and chocolate brown dye.  Folded and clamped in the Itajime Shibori style.  I only wet it a little bit before applying the dye so it wicked in to the middle more than some. That is what allows the slight white section between the brown and black.

Another one I want to keep for myself.  All I need now is more places to wear them.

Lines

These pictures are all of the same silk scarf, but at different steps. 

First, I stretched it on the frame and painted it with red dye.  Then I painted some free form lines with black.  You can see in the first picture how defined the lines are. 

The second picture shows how diffuse the lines became with the salt pulling the dye.

And the scarf after steam setting the dye and washing it.  I'm really happy how this turned out.  Red dye doesn't move much with the salt, but the black does.

Flower baby

For your little flower baby.  I'm glad purple is so popular now, I've always like it. 

My husband and I work with a lot of people in their 20's and 30s so there are a number of baby gifts needed.  I like to give them one of my hand dyed shirts.  Much nicer than a plain white one.  And since the design is done as batik it won't wear off the front from a lot of washings.  And the fiber reactive dye is quite resistant to drooling and washing. 

Newness

Not only a new design but a new item.  I found a supplier for infant top and bottom sets that offers long sleeves.  We are in Minnesota, after all.  These are still a nice, soft fabric.  The bottoms seem to have a bit more room in the seat.  Not being a Mom, I assume that is a good thing.  Babies grow so fast you want to have more time for them to wear it.

For the design, it is a retro-looking firetruck.  As you know, I like to decorate the rear end of babies.  Crawlers and new walkers spend a lot of time with their rears up on display so I like to put something cute on it.  The fire truck gets a hydrant.

Meow

I've been busy dyeing, even if I haven't been busy doing blog posts.  Another shirt using the Dances With Raisins color from Dharma with my leopard design.  Nice kitty.  I'll just sit quietly over here.

Folds

I tried out a different way to fold this scarf before wrapping it around the pole Arashi style.  I hope the pictures make it clear, it's a bit awkward to describe.

I folded it in half the long way, than overlapping folds facing the same way to shorten it up.  The first picture is when it was folded and ironed.  The second one is when I was trying to get it to stay on the pole long enough to wrap it with string.  That was the biggest challenge.  And, of course, the finished product in the third picture partially folded like it was when I dyed it.

Eagle

A new batik design, of a bald eagle with a feather on the back.  Color is strong navy.