Sinds het nieuwe jaar gestart is kriebelde het bij mij om weer eens te verven. Dit keer niet zomaar iets verven om te verven en voor de techniek, maar gericht in bepaalde kleuren en voor een bepaald doel. Dus eerst naar de vrijdags markt in Maastricht gegaan om daar dunne katoen/ kaasdoek te kopen. De doek heb ik eerst gedeeld, zodat ik uiteindelijk 6 stukken van ca 200cm lang en 50 cm breed kreeg. 

Ever since the new year started i felt like dyeing. But this time not only for the technique or dying proces, but this time with a goal and purpose for the fabric. So I went to the weekly market on Friday in Maastricht and bought 4 meters of cheesecloths (plain openweaved  cotton). This fabric I split into 6 same seized pieces, so I ended up with 6 pieces of 2.00m  long and 0,50 m wide .

Na het wassen in water en drogen heb ik dan toch maar eerst de randen af "ge-zig-zagged" en randjes daarna netjes geknipt en de stof gestreken. Dag later: eindelijk klaar voor het shibori werk De doeken heb ik op verschillende manieren gevouwen en daarna met een rijgsteek bewerkt of stenen of dikke knikkers  erin gewikkeld en afgebonden. Zie foto's .

After washing the fabric first and drying it, I hemphed it by "zigzag"(?) the edges with my old sewingmachine. Day later: I was finally done with preparations. Time for the shibori and tying. The pieces I folded on different ways so the effect would also be different. I sow by hand with a runner stitch and added glassballs, marbles, stones into the fabric too, tying it securely off. See pictures

Deel van de collectie voor het verven / part of the collection before dyeing

Volgende stap het verven zelf Handschoenenen schort aan en een verfbad maken waarin ik dan telkens 2 lappen stof tegelijk in gelegd heb. Dit moest 20 minuten sudderen, dan eruit halen en uitspoelen met water. Geduld is een mooie zaak

Next step was the dyeing part. Time for gloves and an apron for protection. I solved the dye as was written on the instruction and added 2 pieces of fabric to it at a time. This had to simmer for about 20 minutes, take it out and rinse it with water. Patience is a good thing;-) 

Maar het resultaat na het verven is hartstikke verrassend, wat zal het zijn geworden???

The result after dyeing it always a surprise.... how will it be??? 

een stuk met shibori = rijgsteek naaien / one piece with shibori = running stitch

een stuk met afbinden met en zonder  stenen / a piece which I tied with and without stones

Het laatste stukje extra stof dat ik ook nog snel wilde verven was deze. Helemaal vastgebonden en dan in 3 verschillende kleuren laten hangen. 

As I had dye left I searched for the same kind of fabric and found this small part. Tied it and added it into the 3 different dyebaths.  

Mijn dochter ging net naar bed, maar wilde het resultaat ook zien"mama mag ik nog even helpen?? "

My daughter was about to go to sleep but was very curious too.. "May I open it up Mummy? "   

Het resultaat is ok, niet zo felgekleurd. Wellicht had ik het er langer in moeten laten hangen en alle verfbaden weer moeten opwarmen, of was de verf toch al ver op. Maar dit is prima zo, nog geen idee wat ik met deze ga doen, maar ik geloof dat mijn dochter dat al wel weet  

The result is ok, not as bright coloured as the other fabrics. Maybee I should of left it longer in the dye or reheated the dyes again, or maybee the dye was just used too often... but nevertheless it is a nice piece, Not sure yet what to make/ do with it, but i think my duaghter already knows  

De volgende blogpost zal gaan over de resultaten van de andere verfbaden... wordt vervolgt

Next post will be for the other dyebaths  results , stay tuned

Ps. Op zondag 28 April komt Vasudevan van de Tasara weaving centre uit India hier een 1 daagse workshop Shibori op zijde geven, tevens andere workshops, zie mijn workshop schema, Geef je snel op vol = vol!!

PS.on Sunday 28th of April , Vasudevan from the Tasara weaving centre, will be giving a 1 day workshop shibori on silk here at my place, see my workshop schedule.   if you want to participate , please subscribe for it as there are only a certain places available

dyeing, shibori, verven Hide

Yes , Yes , Yes, finally after all these festive days some time to felt. I am not sure yet what it will be....... just work guided by my intuition.

 I just descided to start layering out wool and try to use all the "leftovers" I have collected last year. It grew into 2 boxes and I hope I can make 1 box afterwards. 

A question to myy fellow felters: What do you normally do with all the leftover pieces of wool?

Feels good to felt again And I'll keep you updated about the result 

new 2013, restjes wol Hide

Yes finally it was the wetting part day!! Luckily I didn’t have to do this all alone As imagine all this wool wet … what a weight it would get??? wel I can tell you I didn’t weight it but 20 kg was nothing,  carrying it with 2 people was heavy enoug….  but we managed.

Around 11 ‘o clock Reya and her daughter and Mariana Cilliberto came in and we started with, what plan I had… So we wetted the whole thing with hot water and pressing all the wool down.

 me runningup and down the garden stairs to get hot water inside… first part of my workout today

The weather was nice , but way to much wind so we had to cover it with plastic. So finallay everything was wetted and liters of hot water were poored out. Now the next step: rolling the wool so it started to entangle.

Unfortunately Reya had to go home again, but before she left she took a great picture of Mariana and me , Thank you very much for that and ofcourse for your help!!

I wanted to add a layer of fabric underneath just to make sure.  As I wasn’t conficdent my first 2 layesr of wool were thick enough to carry al l the weight of the locks.

So we unrolled the piece “upside down”and “Voila” the locks were down. On the  fabric we placed a very thins layer of Gotland wool and oh boy was that diffycult to do. we had such a strong wind today…

After rolling it at the table, I decided to try and add the roll behind my Bicycle… something I have been thinking about for a week or so, inspired by the Mongolian people whom add their felt bundle behind a horse.

 So I took my bicycle, the roll, a (bamboo) stick, some antislip cloth and a rope , adding it together and attached it to my bike

 Let’s try…. oef heavy …..

I came about 5 meters and them my bundel got mixed up with the ropes, so we had to think of something to improve. I saw a solution in adding another stick to keep the ropes at a certain distance , using my florist tape for that

 And a new try  ….

 and it worked!!!!  Mariana also gave it a try and after opening it we pakced it all agai n and I cycled a little block: my  street little flat, a street upwards and a street downwards It worked just the corners were a little diffycult. One tip for you all whom are going to try this too, make sure You’ll not be seen by police as ofcourse this is too dangerous for when other cyclers or traffic wants to pass. I got a warning from someone for that….

After a block I unrolled it and rolled it into the other directions so every side was going to be felted. My kids and her friends wanted to help too se we did a fleting dance on the rug they loved it, “more soap , more soap Kim!! “

 And then finally the rinsing part  let’s see if it it felted well enoug…..I hope I can show you the final dry result…

will be continued….

raw wool, rug, ruwe wol, tapijt Hide

For today this is my workspace:

It feels so good to be working outside…  end the feeling gets even better when I hear this  at the radio:” the weather today will be grey , cloudy but in Limburg (my area)  sometimes sun… ” well to be honest I had sunshine all day

At my 2 terrace tables  ca 1 kg of carded Swedish Gotland wool… placed them in 2 layers.. raw wool will follow soon after I picked up the kids from school

Feeling a super lucky girl.. ahum woman, hihihi

Fingers crossed I  will be able to  finish with placing the wools, before darkness.. the wetting part will be a task for tomorrow I think…  let’s hope I can finish this huge piece on my own..

ruwe wol Hide

I know it is Tuesday today but unfortunately so many things happened last week I wasn again not able to complete the stitch I’ll try to get on track soon I promise…

Last Sunday I was at a music concourse, my oldest had to play in front of a jury  and thought why don;t I take something along to do?  not a difficult question as I just found this tutorial:

crochetting a simple  flower  / bloemetje haken

So I started crocheting and look at the result… I think 17  were made while I listened to the different performances.

Today I went to Amsterdam to a stadion called  the “Arena”  a strike was organised there 50.000 teachers were there. 550 buses from all places of the country drove to it… I sat more hours in the bus than in that Arena, but it was all for a good case: trying to stop the plans of  our minister of education .. On our way back we sadly heard on the radio she still thinks here plans will be super and better for the education  I would love to take her along for a week in our job….

bloemetje, crochetting, haken Hide