Overgrowth Final Installation Shots

I've been back in Savannah for a week now and it has taken this long just to get back into the swing of things and go through my final images of Overgrowth.  The project was designed to take 3 months and when that time was done so was the piece.  I'm sure I could have spent another 3 months making felt and covering the space, but it was nice to have that cut off date to force me to some creative decisions for engaging the space.  A few little sections of my felted "mold" on the outside of the glass case ended up being my favorite parts, like new spores breaking off and beginning to spread. The piece will remain on display in Contemporary Craft's lobby until the end of the month!

Since I won't be on hand to talk to visitors about the project and the dyes I used I left this little display with some swatches of my naturally dyed wool and a vase with some of the dried plant materials.

 

I'll be getting back into my studio this week and the next 2 months will be busy busy busy with finishing my thesis exhibition, which opens November 1st at Ashmore Gallery here in Savannah.

The Home Stretch

I've only got a little over a week left here at Contemporary Craft, and the installation is coming along. 

It started to grow over and inside of the old refrigerated case. Bending sideways and backwards to felt inside the case wasn't so great on my back, but I'm pretty excited about how its looking.

Besides working feverishly on the installation I've been teaching a couple workshops.  On tuesday I taught a bundle dying workshop, which Contemporary Craft blogged about here. Yesterday I taught Introduction to Felt-making with a really great group, we made lots of felt and had a lot of fun!

Natural Dye Experiment: Black Beans

I've been trying lots of new plants for natural dyes for my installation.  Between the river trail and the nearby markets the Strip District of Pittsburgh provides a bounty of color.  Even so, getting a nice true strong green is very difficult.  My best chance is going to be getting a blue and over dying with yellow.  So I've been experimenting with black bean soaking water and getting good results. Below are some images of the process using a silk scarf:

First I soak black turtle beans in water over night. I use about twice as much water as black beans, and stir ever so often as I walk by. Then I scoop the now dark purple water off the beans and into a bucket to dye in.  (The beans made delicious burgers).

 I added a splash of vinegar to the dye bath, since silk as a protein fiber tends to take up color better in a slightly acidic bath.  This also has the effect of turning my dye a brighter, magenta purple.

And here is the scarf after spending the night in the cool black bean dye.  Very pretty magenta, but not the blue that I'm looking for.  To correct this I have to adjust the PH back to the other side by soaking it for a few minutes in a water and baking soda solution.  Its pretty amazing to watch actually, as the color changes right before my eyes.  Here it is after just a few seconds in the baking soda wash.

 The final color is this beautiful steel blue.

 I've got about a half a pound of wool still in the dye, since it doesn't take up color as quickly at cool temperatures as the silk.  It will spend another night in the dye, and once I take it out tomorrow I will be able to over dye the blue wool with some yellow from turmeric and hopefully get a nice range of greens for my installation.

Workshop Postcard

Information on my workshops at Contemporary Craft

July 14th

 Sometimes it seems like I don't get very far in a day, but looking between my last post and today's images is reassuring.  I spent over a week making all the little fiddly bits in the center of the side counter, and I will probably still add a bit more.  For the time being however I've moved onto bigger (and better?) areas.  I'm starting to work my way across the front of the space.

I'm getting especially excited about the way its beginning to drip over the front side here.

June 25th

Just a quick update on the progress of the installation at SCC.  I've been making lots of felt and dyeing lots of wool.  The bright yellows and oranges are coming from turmeric, and I've gotten a pale minty green from spinach and a blue/grey from black beans, all sourced from the markets just around the corner from SCC in the Strip District of Pittsburgh.  Its been a lot of fun exploring the city and my to-do list just keeps getting longer.

June 10 2013

I've just finished the first week of my residency at Contemporary Craft here in Pittsburgh.  I'm working on a fiber installation that's inspired by natural processes of decay. The installation will grow over time to completely engulf the space by the end of August, and is made up of a couple different components. One component is made up of these felted cup forms inspired by moss, lichen, and mold, shown here at the end of day two:

There just so happens to be this lovely tree outside my workspace, which provided me with my color palette. I'm doing a bit of natural dying using locally foraged plants to get some of my colors.  Shown below are samples dyed with a mixture of Queen Anne's lace and Golden Alexander, using Iron and Copper Mordants. 

This yarn is going to be used for another component of the installation, a large vine that will grow across the back wall and into the space, which just got started today.

 I'm hoping to make weekly updates on the installation as it grows, so check back often, or follow the Contemporary Craft Tumblr which will also be posting updates.

Capillary Action - Final installation shots

Its finally done!  It ended up being just over 11 feet wide, 9 feet tall, and took over 6,000 yards of yarn.

Here's a picture with me in front of it for scale.  As a side note: my dress was dyed at the workshop a couple weeks ago, which I blogged about here. It was a light yellow to begin with, and I over dyed it with Iron and Tea to give it this nice grey/green.

I leave Paducah tomorrow evening. Its been a great, busy, productive, fun month. While I'm excited to get back home to my kitties and a certain bearded fella, I will defnitely miss all my new friends and the lovely studio here!

Coming together

Getting closer, about 3/4 complete as of yesterday:

And the poster I made for my reception next week:

Day Whichever Progress (I've lost count)

Here's a Progress shot from a couple days ago, at from outside last night:

Another fun thing about the studio is there are always toads outside at night.  I almost stepped on this little guy when I went out to photograph.

Natural Dye Workshop

This weekend I hosted a natural dye demonstration/workshop in the A.I.R. studio here in Paducah.  On Saturday we started out by mordanting our fiber - treating it with Alum or Iron in order to help the fiber take up the dye and make the color more permanent.

Our fiber after they came out of the mordants.

We also cooked our dyes on Saturday, using local Blackberries, Black Tea, Brazilwood and Turmeric.

The dyestuffs

The dye baths

In order to keep the blackberry dye from going grey we didn't simmer our fabric in it, but let it sit overnight. On Sunday we dyed the rest of our fiber.  The participants were able to get a wide range of colors depending on the choice of the Alum or Iron mordant, the amount of time in the dye baths and the fiber they used.  Many people brought natural wool roving but we also had some silk scarves and some recycled material from wool coats.

The range of colors for each dye were:

                                Blackberry: Light purple to lavender to grayish purple

                                Tea: Warm tans to grays

                                Turmeric: Bright yellow to gold to brown

                                Brazilwood: Mauve to magenta to dark purple

Our dyed fabric drying outside

The two tones from the different mordants are easy to see in Tina's samples

Showing off the difference between silk and wool.

Georgia knotted her silk scarves before putting them in the
dye bath in order to get these beautiful textures.