Monday 31 May 2010

what happens when...



in case you wanted to know, but perhaps never thought to try
this is what happens
when one wraps a piece of damp kelp
in a piece of silk
and then
forgets to unpack it from the compost at the bottom of the suitcase
on returning home from far away

i found this fragment last night
when scraping out the depths of the Green Monster
in preparation for onward wandering on Friday

it hasn't been boiled or steamed
just quietly sulking for a month
in my very cold room
slow dyed but not at all mindfully
in fact
out of sight and out of mind entirely
[there goes that theory!]

i did wash and dry it before i made the photo
cos it was a tad slimy
but the silk doesn't seem to have been damaged at all
even though the kelp was fresh from the sea
[originally]

now i think a silk dress
wrapped in kelp
and left to rest a while
might be a very beautiful thing indeed

time is your friend...

38 comments:

  1. Compost maps on silk - lovely stuff.

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  2. bet that silk was smiling away to itself
    tucked away out of sight and out of mind
    [ in perfect solitude ]
    waiting to be discovered..

    loving those dark and holey, holy marks

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  3. Have you just discovered a whole new and beautiful creative outlet?!

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  4. MAGIC!
    Facinating India, what could have caused the yellow-orange blobs? they add interest.
    Also I agree entirely about Facebook, can't get into myself, let alone twittering.

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  5. sometimes the nearest friends are forgotten a bit in the madness of life...but if you think of them they are the most beautiful most dear ones.
    It made me think when I saw your forgotten seaweed result.
    The facebook thing...sigh....
    doeidoei

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  6. Hmm, when I get home I may try this, plenty of kelp at home.

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  7. What a beautiful result, probably almost impossible to create again, but it will be interesting trying.

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  8. Quite an illustrious definition of *compost* you have here! At the risk of sounding like an old Jefferson Airplane song (HAH), viewing your results of this biological process has fertilized and conditioned the soil of my mind :>]

    Yes, what about those yellow-orange blobs? Maybe algae?

    p.s. I kinda think of f'book as a tool...useful at times, totally useless at others, like all tools. Still, miss you there.

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  9. Stunning... the silk dress idea sounds amazing.

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  10. Wonderful! Must try that on a silk dress and perhaps become a mermaid. Or at least dress like one.
    Considering the mindfulness part: perhaps you were mindful elsewhere, which could count too?

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  11. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  12. mapping here, it seems. wonderful surprise (could have been compost) the best kind. really wonderful.

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  13. Did the sniffer dogs not smell the seaweed? Obviously not what they were after. Beautiful marks and the yellow a bit like my solder spots.
    Pam

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  14. I like it. A map. KelpMap Forest on Silk. la-de-da.

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  15. Hey, I was just going to ASK you that!!! -J

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  16. yvette your comment was fantastic...India it is amazing, I love the pattern. It would be easy to hide in the green monster . I'm surprised we haven't seen you on border security...Have a great trip.

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  17. ha ha they were actually filming when i arrived into Sydney a few trips back but the little men at Customs didn't even want me to open the Beast...
    on the other hand, the sniffer puppies sometimes pick up on the scent of plant-dyed cloth which makes for very amusing conversations and much praising of the dog for its perception of 'residual aromas'

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  18. oh and i forgot to mention, the comment that i removed was from someone offering sex and dvds in between a lot of Japanese text. i'd rather folks didn't advertise here, if that's ok?

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  19. i can only think of mermaids....

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  20. Great result India, what a beautiful cloth.

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  21. So love this story Indi!
    ...and what's even better is the results which to my mind are stunning.
    Lucky you had to pack up and set off again... this seems just the right moment to have found it!

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  22. Wow!!! amazingly beautiful..

    ...low maintenance dying.. my kind of dying.. Thanks.

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  23. away from the sight, but still in the heart....

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  24. hi India
    first of all, thank you dearly for your visits & comments, I was truely surprised & honored to see you had stopped by :)
    then ... wow the colors & imprint the kelp left on that silk, that's really amazing. From the most unplanned or unexpected events, comes the most amazing results. Thank you for sharing with us. A silk dress wrapped with kelp & left to dye by itself would be breathtaking, I suppose !
    thank you very much for your observation about blue flowers, I have so much to learn (more particularly from you, for sure) I love experimenting, and mistakes make the "trip" more interesting. We learn from mistakes, don't we ? :)
    thanks again

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  25. Sometimes the best things happen "by accident." I think there is so much beauty in this now.

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  26. I've just moved back to Tasmania... there's kelp galore here :-) It smells very bad when rotting on the beach, how did your experiment go - stinkwise?

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  27. smell not too bad...but it was jolly slimy!

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  28. That is totally amazing! It looks so much like careful stippling (as Jude said above).

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  29. I had a friend visiting from British Columbia grab me a bag of it and have just started the experiment :)

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  30. Reminds me of rust dyeing fabric. Love your results.

    Will you be creating more 'art' with kelp? I hope you do and share your creations with us.

    warm quilt hugs, sue in CA

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  31. but of course...just waiting for it to wash up at my feet...

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  32. aren't you happy you forgot it?
    what a lovely design & beautiful colors.

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  33. Did you ever try this with a silk dress india?

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    Replies
    1. Not yet...but I have a plan for my next visit to Lopez. Bundle and leave
      until I wash up there again.
      Which could be fun!

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