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Some of the most beautiful and interesting quilts I have come across.

Last night was my first dyeing disaster. It all started off well, a pot of Cutch on the stove, producing some gorgeous caramel shades on cotton. Everything was going swell and then I added some iron to try and attempt chocolate browns. Oh. my. god. I will never add iron to anything again. BLACK EVERYWHERE. At first I thought the fabrics were interesting, I was getting a marbly mixture of blacks, greys and caramels on the fibre. But then, everywhere the liquid dripped, stained. I transfered the leftover dye to mason jars and there is now black stained counter tops, floors and the side of my cupboard. The bathroom tub, my hands. Oh my god. To make matters worse, the fibre that had the iron in it was hanging too close to the fibre with no iron and I now have black spots on some of my precious cutch cyed scarves. Oh my god. Live and learn I guess. Live and learn.

Happy Monday Friends! It is getting much cooler here in Toronto, I know lately I have been piling on the wool blankets at night and summer is almost over. I can't believe it! Next weekend I will be heading north to Collingwood and then camping to Tobermorey for a little nature therapy before it starts to get really cold. This past weekend was a strange one for me. I attended the funeral procession for Jack Layton which was incredibly sad but also uplifting. On top of that, I've been glued to the news of Hurricane Irene as my mom lives in North Carolina and was right in the brunt of the storm. She is fine, thankfully as she is inland but said it was pretty rough with lot's of trees down around her and power outages. 

This will be a very busy week for me as I am preparing for both The Cabbagetown Arts Show as well as The Queen West Art Crawl in September. The photos above show some of the things I am working on; Some new pillows in the shop, they are made from a vintage Japanese kimono but look very African in appearance. I love them and hope you will too! Unfortunately, I won't be able to get all of the Fall stuff professionally photographed until the end of September so I will be slowly photographing and uploading things on my own over the next few weeks. The second photo is of some new natural dyestuffs I received in the mail, Logwood, Black Oak and Cutch. I have been prepping all of the fabrics and can't wait to finish the new bags and scarves I will be making with them.

Enjoy your day everyone!

Tea Break

It's a tea break for me. I am sitting outside enjoying the last days of Summer. The cicada's are buzzing so loudly around me that I swear my ears are ringing. I've been at my computer most of the day, working out some new prints for Fall. I'm very indecisive so naturally, this has taken the entire day. 


It has been a strange and sad couple of days here in Canada. Yesterday, we lost a great man,  Jack Layton, leader of the NDP party, the official opposition in our parliamentary system. He was a determined advocate for the environment and many marginalized groups and a shining light in our political system. Charismatic leaders like him do not come along very often, it is a great loss.

Etsy Love Friday

I'm going to be rolling out some themed posts on this here blog soon, if I can find the time to do this more regularly. Today I wanted to feature this amazing  jewelry company from Portland, Iswas+Willbe.
What I love most about them is the way they photograph their work, in little collections of objects. 

There is that reference to death, nature and mysticism in their work which seems to be apparent in a lot of places these days. I love the use of driftwood and primary shapes as well. Overall its just a refreshing display of jewelry and way of differentiating ones work on Etsy through the use of creative styling and photography.

Happy Friday Everyone! I myself have a lot of work and some play planned. I came down with a nasty cold this week which SUCKS. Lot's of orders to get through today and some school assignments. But still planning to find time to hit up the beach and The Ex on Sunday. What will you be doing to celebrate the last weeks of summer? Bye for now, Alison XO

Geometry

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I've been working on some new screen prints for the Fall and Christmas shows. Some of my current fabrics are very geometric in appearance, so i've been looking at a lot of geometric patterns, especially in tribal textiles and clothing.. These are some of the images inspiring me right now. I could have posted a hundred more pictures. Have a look through my Pinterest for more.

Hello!


As usual, my apologies for being MIA. I wanted to share with you a few photos from my natural dyeing experiments. I finally used up some of my dyes I bought when I was in Vancouver. I started off doing indigo. Most people would not start there, seeing as it requires fermentation and such. Most people would probably start with something simple, maybe some onion skins or some cabbage. But nooooooo. So, last Sunday afternoon, I proceeded to start my first indigo vat. You can see above, my lovely selection of natural fibres, all ready for colour. 

To be honest, Maiwa sells their indigo in a kit and it was a lot simpler than I thought. I added the indigo and some lye and water to a jar and let it sit out in the sun for a few hours. You can see the interesting transformation in the photos below, changing from a blue liquid to a coppery one with a blue film as it reduces. The 'flower' on the top is a good indicator that things are working and the oxygen is reducing. What is so fascinating about dyeing with indigo is that the actual dyeing doesn't take place in the vat but once you remove the fabrics and the oxygen hits them. At this point they turn blue, like magic!

I ended up dyeing some thick cotton linen with a ribbed texture that is used as obi lining. I thought it would be a good test piece but it actually took the dye so well and is so thick that I plan to make some little pouch's from it. I also threw in varying types of cotton, muslin and gauze. The best turnout was the white silk I threw in there. I can't wait to show you guys what I have in store for that! I didn't use any special shibori techniques this time, mainly just wrapped and twisted. One piece of gauze I wrapped and bundled with little stones which gave me the typical tie dye pattern. Overall, it was a totally fun and gratifying way to spend the afternoon. More to come!

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Have I mentioned how much I love neon? Actually, to be more specific, it is tribal neon that I am crazy about. Ikat and other traditional patterns in neon colours - swoon! A funny story: I made some canvas bags this summer with neon zippers and neon screen prints on them. I sold them so I went out to try to buy more neon zippers and not a single store in Toronto or Vancouver carried them. I asked my supplier where he got the first ones? Oh they were left over from the early 90's! Sooo funny. I expect they will start carrying them again in 2-3 years.


I haven't been updating my blog as much as I would like. I have been busy with some business classes i am taking, a new business venture as well as trying to get Grace Fall stuff off of the ground. I will be trying out some new products next Saturday, August 13th at a little street market called Bloorcourt. If you are in Toronto, it would be great if you stopped by!


Have a great weekend friends! XO