Textures

 While hunting for a particular photo that I knew was filed 'somewhere' it occurred to me that I had stored a wealth of texture photos to use in artwork. I thought that I might share with you a few of the ones that came up first.  The one above is a small piece of coral, and aren't the patterns lovely?

                          The patterns in dried and cracked mud are always interesting I think.

 This is taken from the bottom of a pot plant that was severely pot bound, resulting in a tangle of roots. Whilst the original brownish photo was interesting I rather liked the inverse colour. Now it resembles seaweed or something else marine

                                             Jelly snakes left too long in a warm packet!

                        Last are tyre tracks obviously, but definitely those of a heavy duty vehicle.

Another Attempt

Since the original gumnuts were very symmetrical, I decided to carve another stamp which really emphasises the symmetry and stylised shape of the image. It may be too over simplified, but worth a try. Now to carve this all out.

Playing with a Design.

I had a little time on my hands, so I started to play around with my gumnut image in Photoshop. These elements are just placed by eye, so that they aren't lining up precisely, but the idea is worth playing around with further I think. It reminds me of a medieval tile, albeit with an Australian flavour!

New Stamp.

 Continuing on in my series of stamps carved from native tree seed pods, I wanted to make this bunch Eucalypt 'nuts' my next project. Not only is the perspective a bit tricky, but the cruciform shape that the stems of the nuts make is almost too geometric.

 After drawing it out a few times to get the hang of the shapes I craved a smallish stamp, and because the cruciform shape is so obvious in the original I decided to make a feature of it and move the nuts apart a bit more and add geometrically placed leaves.

The finished stamp is almost O.K , but I do want to make a bigger one and to make a few adjustments.

Good Luck?

I wonder if a lizard on the doorstep is a good luck symbol.  This copper coloured skink was very nearly trodden on as it slept in the sunshine on the brick doorstep. Luckily the dog didn't see it either!

Eco Dyeing

 The first unwrapped bundle proved to be very dull, most of the marks faded when washed and the yellow of the Coreopsis just made the odd splodge of orange. How I wish I had used 100% cotton instead of the polycotton.

 As the fabric was not much use the dull pale yellow I decided to go for broke and over dye the still wrapped bundles with a dye that will work on synthetics. I used shades of red and blue looking to get a brownish colour over the top of the yellow.

 This rather messy looking piece is the result of the dyes refusing to migrate through the layers of fabric. Just a faint touch of blue and red over the yellow and brown marks.

This is the outside of the bundle with the contrast between where the rubber bands were and the marks of the twisted fabric when I squeezed most of the water out. I like this small piece particularly where the yellow marked fabric meets the blue.

Eco Dyeing Progress.

 Well, there do seem to be some marks there, but I suspect that they'll be very impermanent given that the fabric is partly synthetic. The Coreopsis seems to have given off colour to the whole dye bath rather than just making marks where the flowers were.

                                     Allowing the colour to develop as the bundles drip dry.

             Definitely some Wormwood leaf markings here, but I wonder if they'll survive the wash.

Eco-Dyeing.

 

 There were still plenty more Coreopsis in the garden so I harvested another batch of slightly tatty flowers. I grabbed a bag of alum soaked fabrics from the box and spread out the flowers on it.

                          A sprinkle of rose petals on the Coreopsis and the cloth was folded over.

 More rose petals on the last fold and then it was all wrapped around a short piece of stick and secured with rubber bands.

When I unfolded the next piece of fabric I saw that it was one with a piece cut out of it and then I remembered that it was originally a cot sheet from the op-shop and it was probably a cotton polyester mix fabric. Oh dear, I don't imagine that the eco dyeing will work on a synthetic fabric. Anyway, I went ahead and covered this piece with dried Wormwood leaves and added it to the pot with the other bundles.