Wednesday, 16 October 2013

Silina ali oblajst - Isatis tinctoria - Woad




Na vrtu so mi zelo lepo rastli trije grmički siline, ki sem jih vzgojila iz semena v lončkih na balkonu, pa še en grm od lani. Ta je najprej cvetel in semenil, potem pa je naprej rastel kot bi bil letošnji, kar ni običajno.
Volno - seveda našo domačo - sem dobro oprala in nato barvala po postopku Leene Riihelle (http://riihivilla.blogspot.fi/2009/10/my-dyeings-with-woad-minun.html) . Obstaja več postopkov za barvanje s svežimi listi siline. Dva sem preskusila že lani poleti, ko sem silino prvič vzgojila na vrtu, pa nista delovala. Po kakšnih štirih neuspelih poskusih sem že skoraj obupala, potem sem pa poskusila še Leenin postopek - et voila! dobila lepo modro.
Tole barvanje je bilo z veliko količino listov, kakih 1200 gramov, ker sem porezala vse liste pred napovedano slano. Tako sem dobila lepe modre, nekje med zgornjo in spodnjo sliko.

There were three bushes of woad thriving in the garden that I'd grown from seed in pots on my balcony, and an additional plant from last year. The latter produced flowers and seeds, then it grew on as if it were this year's plant, which is unusual.
I prepared wool yarn - naturally it was Slovenian wool - washing it well and then dyed it with woad following the procedure described by Leena Riihella here (http://riihivilla.blogspot.fi/2009/10/my-dyeings-with-woad-minun.html). Dyeing with fresh woad leaves can be done in different ways. I tried two last summer when I grew woad for the first time: they both failed. After about four failures I almost gave up but then I tried Leena's procedure - et voila! I got beautiful blue.
Dyeing was done with a large amount of leaves, about 1200 gram. In the beginning of October as frost was forecasted I harvested all leaves. I got a couple of nice blue skeins of wool yarn, the colour is somewhere between that shown in the two pictures above.
 
  

 
Po nekaj pobarvanih štrenicah intenzivne modre je bila naslednja takale - nekaj puste drap z nakazanimi, skoraj neopaznimi odsevi svetlo modre in lila-roza. Tudi naslednja štrenica je bila enako neprivlačna.
After a couple of skeins dyed intense blue the next skein was this - a drab beige with barely perceptible hints of light blue and pink. The next skein came out equally unattractive.
Naslednji dan sem - bolj zato, da barvno kopel popolnoma izčrpam - poskusila s striženo volno ovce Bluefaced Leicester in dobila tole:
On the next day I threw in a few curls of Bluefaced Leicester, ore in an attempt to exhaust the dyebath than in any hope to get good colour - and got this:
 
 
Ju-hu! Še en kosem v barvilno kopel - in spet takale krasna barva! In še en kosem, in spet!
 
Waw! Another fluff of Bluefaced Leicester went in - and again this gorgeous colour! Another fluff  - again this colour!
 
 
V resnici je barva rahlo lila, ne čisto roza. Kosem  volne na levi je bolj izrazito lila,  a se na sliki mogoče ne vidi.
 
In real life the colour also contains some blue, it's not pure pink. The fluff on the left is more blue which may not be seen clearly.
 
Naslednji dan sem spet barvala kosme strižene volne Blufaced Leicester, tri zapored. Zdaj so bile barve malo bolj na oranžno. Opogumljena z doseženimi barvami sem en kosem namočila v okisano vodo, enega samo v vodo in enega v vodo s pralno sodo (bazično). Barve so bile: kisova lepo roza, samo v vodi roza z malo bež odtenkom in v bazični vodi precej drap (od desne proti levi).
 
On the next day I dyed fluffs of Bluefaced Leicester again, three dyeings in a row. Now the colours came out a bit more orange-ey. Encouraged with the colours obtained I dipped one fluff in water with vinegar, one in just tap water and a third one in water to which I'd added washing soda (alcali). The colours were: vinegar - nice pink, just water - pink with hints of beige, washing soda - rather beige (from right to left in the picture).
 
 
Ta mi ni bila preveč všeč pa sem jo namočila še v kisovo vodo: postala je precej bolj roza.
 
I didn't like the latter so I soaked it in vinegar in water to obtain a pretty more pink colour.
 
Tako sem od teh blitvi podobnih listov dobila tri povsem različne barve. To pa je ustvarjalni
užitek!
 
So these spinache-like leaves gave me three different colours. What creative pleasure!
 
 

 
 
Pa še posnetek nastajanja modre na volni iz kopeli. Žal je posnetek res amaterski, narejen z mobijem enoročno, z drugo pa obračam štreno, da se dobro prezrači na vse strani. https://picasaweb.google.com/110721982076288214726/STelefona#5931697817468940258 
 
I'm also adding a video showing wool yarn turning into blue as it comes from the dye vat. Sadly, the video is highly unprofessional: Imade it with my mobile phone, holding it in one hand and manipulating the wool skein with the otnher to aerate it well.
 
 

Friday, 20 September 2013

Dobro jutro na TV Slo 1 - Good morning on TV Slovenia 1

O mojem barvanju z rastlinami je bila danes četrturna kontaktna oddaja v sklopu programa Dobro jutro (čas: 8.08). Lahko si jo ogledate na povezavi
http://ava.rtvslo.si/predvajaj/dobro-jutro-2-del/ava2.174239315/

My natural dyeing was presented on TV Slovenija 1 in a 15-minute phone-in programme within the programme Good morning  (timing: 8:08).. You may watch it at
http://ava.rtvslo.si/predvajaj/dobro-jutro-2-del/ava2.174239315/


Pa še nekaj posnetkov. Opravičujem se za slabo kvaliteto slik -   naložila sem jih lahko samo tako, da sem z mobilnim telefonom posnela ustavljeno sliko na ekranu.

See some snapshots below. I apologize for poor quality - taking pictures of the screen with my mobile phone was the only way I could transfer anything onto the blog.










 

Wednesday, 28 August 2013

Sončnica in kozmeja (2) - Sunflower and yellow cosmos (2)

 
 
 
 
 
 
Kozmeja se je zelo dobro izkazala na volni. Pobarvala sem tri majhne štrenice, žal pa jih nisem slikala, preden sem najbolj intenzivno oranžno prodala (neki deklici, ki jo je hotela, da bo spletla šal svojemu plišastemu medvedku).
 
Že barvam naslednjo serijo: ena štrenica v prvi kopeli (se suši) in tri štrenice v drugi kopeli - od tega ena v pranju, dve pa se čez noč namakata v barvilni kopeli, ki sem ji dodala sodo bikarbono. 
 
Na sliki je še volna, barvana z zelenimi orehi - rjava, s čebulo - zelenkasto rumena, (verjetno) rabarbaro - bež in silino - indigo modra.
 
Res je čudovito takole shranjevati poletne barve za sive, temačne zimske dni!
 
 
 
Yellow cosmos proved to be very effective on wool. I dyed three small skeins. To my shame I must admit I took no pictures before selling the most intensive orange skein (to a small girl who wanted it to knit a scarf for her teddy bear).
 
A second batch is already underway: one skein in the first dyeing (it is drying) and three skeins in the second dyeing, of which one is being washed and two are soaking in the dyebath to which I added a teaspoon of sodium bicarbonate.
 
Shown in the picture are also skeins dyed with green walnuts - brown, with onion skins - greenish yellow, (probably) rhubarb - beige and with woad - indigo blue. 
 
 
It is so wonderful to preserve summer colours for the grey, dull winter days!

Thursday, 22 August 2013

Sončnica in kozmeja - Sunflower and yellow cosmos






 
Sončnicam je letošnje vroče vreme zelo prijalo, če že drugim rastlinam na vrtu ni preveč. Tako cvetove sproti režem, da mi krasijo dnevno sobo, ko začnejo veneti, pa uporabim še za barvanje.
 
Sunflowers liked this summer's hot weather, if most other plants in my garden didn't. So I cut flower heads regularly and use them to decorate my living room. When they start to wilt I use them for natural dyeing.
 
Ker se mi je zdelo premalo materiala od ene sončnice, sem potrgala še nekaj cvetov kozmeje, ki raste tudi na balkonu, dodala nekaj posušenih cvetov kozmeje ...
 
Since the material from only one sunflower head appeared to be insufficient for a good dye bath I also picked some flower heads on the cosmos growing in a pot on my balkony, and added a few dried ones...
  















... in skuhala barvilno kopel.
Volna se še pere oziroma počasi barva v hladni kopeli - slike prihodnjič.


... and boiled everything to obtain a dyebath.
Wool is being washed or undergoing slow dyeing in a cool bath - pictures coming soon.

 

Monday, 19 August 2013

Barvano+nebarvano - Dyed +undyed

Pred časom sem dobila zelo lepo domačo volno od črne ovce, se pravi dejansko temno rjave. Ostrigli so jagnjice, volno skrbno odbrali in jo dali sčesat. Je izredno mehka, čista, skoraj brez smeti in tudi zelo malo resasta.
Taki volni sem morala dati priložnost, da pride do izraza v vsej svoji lepoti in žlahtnosti, zato sem jo uporabila za filcane copate, ki so zunaj samo iz te volne, v notranjosti pa je volna, barvana z zelenimi orehi, da jo bolj poudari. 

Copati so bili tako lepi, da sem jih prav s težkim srcem nesla naročnici. Ampak sem bila poplačana: ostala je brez besed in copate kar božala. Njena mama jih bo gotovo tudi zelo vesela in jih bo rada nosila.

Some time ago I got very beautiful wool of our native sheep - black, which is in fact dark brown. The owners sheared young ewes, carfully discarded the bad parts of the fleece and had the selected fleece carded. it is extremely soft, clean of almost any dirt and vegetable matter and with very little kemp.

Such wool had to be given the opportunity to show all its beauty and nobleness so I used it to felt slippers with outside layers uniquely from this wool and an inner layer of wool dyed with green walnuts for greater accent.

The slippers came out so beautiful I gave them to the custommer with a heavy heart. However, I was well paid off: she remained speechless, stroking them. Her mother will doubtlessly be glad to receive them and will love to wear them.


Pa še dve dodatni sliki:

Two more pictures: