Monday, May 25, 2015

The Distracted Gardener

When I first planted the roses, I'd cut some of the longer stems and put them in a vase.  To do so, I'd had to trim a few of the leaves.

Light bulb moment #1: why not try a cold eco-bundle with those leaves?  

Going partly by instinct and partly by reference to India Flint's well-known book on the subject, Eco-Color, I tore a strip off a piece of white silk charmeuse, dampened it by spritzing it with a mixture of 1 part vinegar to 4 parts water, laid out the rose leaves -- and some onion skins just for fun, spritzed some more, bundled it up and tucked it away in a glass jar.  I promised myself I wouldn't unroll it for at least a month and marked the date on my calendar (June 22).

Vinegar spray, onion skins, roses and bundle

Fast forward a few days. 

The better part of today has been spent nourishing the last of my flower beds, and planting cosmos, poppy and marigold seeds.

In between spurts of digging, weeding and spreading manure/soil mix, I'd sit on the bench in my Outdoor Studio and knit a bit or sip coffee or whatever.

That was before the breeze came up...and began to dislodge petals from the flowers on the overhead branches of the ornamental fruit tree.

Light bulb moment #2: why not make a bundle out of those falling petals?

This time I took a shorter, wider piece of silk (not charmeuse, but I can't for the life of me tell you what it is.  Maybe habotai.), laid it on a piece of plastic, put the layers on the cushions of the bench with a weight on each end, and let the petals fall where they may.

One of the roses -- a Campfire -- was shedding its petals so I added them to the mix (the yellow bits in the photo).  



When I had enough (and the breeze threatened to ignore the weights), I spritzed it all thoroughly, bundled it up and added it to the jar, again noting the date on my calendar.

"Eco-bundles" 1 & 2

I'm neither a skilled nor frequent practitioner of 'eco-dyeing', so what turns up will be purely due to time and serendipity.  What I'll do with the resulting fabric remains to be seen.  ;-)

Note to self: find something in which to collect rose petals...

4 comments:

Giddings Art said...

I can't wait to see the results of your eco-dyeing experiment!

Judy Warner said...

I can't wait to hear how this turns out.

Maggi said...

Look forward to seeing the results.

Linda A. Miller said...

Me, too! Waiting to see what happens with bated breath!