Fabric dyeing/Rusting

It's been such a busy summer I 've hardly had time to blog.   My friends and I have been playing with setacolour dyes on fabric, just painting on the colour, throwing on some salt and waiting to see what happens.

This last one was completed by Shirley previously. This is a photo of Shirley and Iris watching our work dry.

Shirley had purchased a rusting kit recently so she invited us over to try it out.   We placed steel wool on the wet fabric and rolled it round wine bottles (no, we didn't drink the wine first).   We fastened it with elastics then wrapped a copper wire round it.   Then we placed the bottles on trays containing a little water.   They were left for 6 days and Shirley kept watering them every day.   Then we unwrapped them from the bottles, washed the fabric adding an agent to stop the rusting (I'll have to check with Shirley on this - can't remember what it is called).   We loved the results.   Iris used fine steel wool for hers, the others were done with coarse steel wool and we could see the difference.    Shirley also wrapped a rusted bolt in a piece of fabric and it gave some interesting effects too.   Here they are - I can see tree trunks....

That's all for now.   By the way, you've met mom, maybe dad, now it's time to introduce the whole family....

These little guys were sleeping in my elm tree about 35-40 feet up in the air.