Unique batik

Sarah forwarded a link to me this morning for a Martha Stewart “Easy Batik” project. I’ve always really loved the look of batik, but have never considered trying it myself - entirely too complicated. But Martha’s project looked very very simple. The only thing I found wrong with it was the fact that it didn’t have the batik “look” that I like. You know, the variegated, layered colors, with the motif appearing in lighter versions of those colors?

I was pretty sure I could get that look by combining Martha’s technique with my own tub-dying one. So I just went for it, and I have to say, I’m quite pleased with the results. Here’s a bit of an overview, in case you’d like to try it yourself. Just keep in mind that I am about as un-fussy as it gets with this kind of thing. When I set up a couple of dye baths in the back yard, I never know what I’m going to get out of them, and that is half the fun!

So, we started out with nine plain bandanas, and a couple yards of plain linen I had laying around. We then picked three colors of fiber-reactive dye that I also had laying around:

• Chartreuse
• Blue Violet
• Dark Brown

As it turned out, that pretty much translated into yellow, purple & rust, but that’s ok. Like I said, it’s all part of the fun.

We swirled our fabrics around in the various buckets, sometimes taking them out of one, and dumping them in another at whim. Sometimes, we’d twist them up before putting them in a new bath, so that we’d have bits of both colors showing. We followed the major steps of a traditional tub-dying method, but without worrying about any of the precision, the timing, or whether we were contaminating one bucket with another’s color.

When we were happy with our swirls of color, we (actually, I’m going to stop saying “we” here because, realistically, all the boys did was choose one of the colors, try on some rubber gloves, stir a bucket once or twice, and squirt a bit of bleach here and there. I did the rest while they played Ultraman nearby.) Ok, so when I was happy with how everything looked, I wrung the dye out of the fabrics as best as I could, and laid them out on the ground.

And then, because I’m entirely too impatient to wait for the fabrics to be washed and dryed, I just picked up the bleach pen and started squirting out a few designs while everything was still wet. Looking at my big piece of linen, I saw Fall colors, and decided that the images on it needed to be leaves. I’m not a particularly talented drawer, but I can scribble ok, so I scribbled some oak leaves and a few others to fill in the empty spaces. The boys were much more abstract with their designs.

After the bleach did it’s job, I rinsed it off of the fabrics with the hose. A few of the designs, including the linen, I put back in one of the tubs, just to give the motifs I’d drawn a tinge of a different color.

One cycle through the washer & dryer later, I had a nice stack of purple & gold linens to play with. I’m not sure what will become of the bandanas. I’d have made the boys shorts if any of them looked enough like each other to become a pair. I suspect I’ll just set them aside to use as handkerchiefs for Eamonn, who has a strong (read: meltdown-inducing) preference for hankies over tissues.

The linen became a skirt, after supper tonight. I figured if it was going to be somewhat fall-themed, then it should also be longer than my others and supply some extra warmth for those crisp Pumpkin Latte kind of nights.  I’m very happy with it, and it’s nice that it doesn’t look like my other 32 handmade skirts.

The potential of this technique has impressed me enough that I have already placed an order for some new dyes and some plain cotton that I can play with. I would like to make something in the aqua/green family (anybody here surprised? No, I thought not.) and I’d like to plan out the design a little more carefully this time instead of just scribbling gigantic leaves all over the place.

Not that there’s anything wrong with gigantic leaves

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Mosaic Tuesday?

I have a raging mosquito bite on my ankle to thank for getting me up two hours earlier than I’ve been used to this summer. I initially tried to resist, given the fact that I was up fairly late last night, but then I gave in to it. For one thing, school starts in just over a week, and I need to get used to being up earlier anyway. For another thing, I could always steal a little nap for myself later if I need one, And lastly, while I was scratching my foot off, I had an idea. And I think it’s a good one.

I call it Mosaic Monday. And yes, I know it’s Tuesday, but I just can’t control which day of the week an itchy bug bite is going to wake me up and inspire me, you know? So, let me introduce my idea, and if it will make you feel better to pretend today is Monday, you can go ahead and do that, ok? Ok.

Here is what Mosaic Monday will entail, and why I think it will work nicely for me:

• I’m already making Week in Review and Six One Way mosaics every Monday anyway, and it would be nice to share them here, I think.
• I’ve been considering changing my Friday Flickr Favorites mosaic to Mondays, just so that all of my mosaic-making can happen at the same time.
• I thought of a new mosaic I’ll call Shop Spotlight, which I may want to tie into a sale or giveaway of some kind.
• Mondays are often housework-intensive, or full of business catch-up around here, and it would actually be kind of nice to have a low-maintenance blog feature to put together so I don’t have to think too much about what to say.

So, without further ado, I present Mosaic Monday on Tuesday (you can click on the images for more details):

Week in Review

A photo mosaic, meant to represent a week of my life. Inspired by Jek-in-the-box and submitted to her Week in Review pool.

Apparently, last week was dominated by muffins and web design…

Six One Way

Each three-panel strip highlights significant moments in motherhood and family life for the previous week. Originally started as a collaborative blog by Vintage Chica and Blue Yonder, there is now a flickr group in which anyone may participate.

Air, Land, “Sea.”

Flickr Favorites

These are other people’s photos that spoke to me during the previous week. Usually I am drawn to colors, lifestyles, or projects that I’d like to try.

(I posted my most recent favorites already)

Shop Spotlight

Consider this your invitation to check out an area of my shop you may not have seen before.

I know you’ve all seen my buttons around here, but I am going to feature them first, because I already have a mosaic made for them!  The buttons are all made entirely of polymer clay, many of them in color schemes that coordinate specifically with designer fabrics. You can find more buttons here and here. And if you’d like the chance to win a button (your choice!), leave a comment here. I’ll draw a random winner tomorrow (Wednesday).

Retroactive winning is allowed, if you place an order today. See a button you like, buy it now, and if you win tomorrow, I’ll apply the discount to your existing order.

[edited 08/27: And the winner is celia!  Congrats.]

So, what do we think? Shall I meet you back here for Mosaic Monday next week? It’ll be a lot less wordy next time since you won’t need all of the background - more pictures, less yapping

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Barcelona Dreaming

It’s been a while since I made a new skirt for myself. I got a copy of Amy Butler’s Midwest Modern this weekend, and while I was looking through it, I came across the Barcelona Skirt. I think I’m in love. I’ve seen flickr photos of it before, but it’s never screamed “make me!” as loudly as it did this weekend.

So, I shopped around online, found a reasonably-priced place where I could fill up my shopping cart with the pattern, the exact same aqua & green fabric in the photo, lining material, and a zipper, and then changed my mind. Not that I don’t want to make it anymore. It’s just that I don’t want to spend $55 to make it. Ouch.

I think I’m going to have to get creative. Maybe just make up my own version, without a lining, and with fabric I already have (if I have enough of anything, which I’m thinking I don’t…) Oh, but I really do love that seagreen coriander fabric!

And on the other end of the spectrum - the cheapest, most instant-gratification jewelry out there: rag jewelry! I found this on A Friend to Knit With last night. And despite the fact that it was already dark outside, I cut some strips of leftover fabric, went out to the back yard, dipped the strips in the pool and made myself two anklets and a bracelet.

They don’t look like much now, but I hope that they’ll fray really nicely after I’ve taken enough showers. Gotta love jewelry that is made out of scraps, and can be done in under five minutes. Although, I have to admit the thought of complicating matters and adding some kind of polymer clay bead to them has crossed my mind. A choker necklace with a heart dangle, maybe? That has possibilities…

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