Monday, 17 January 2011

lovely to be home for [most of] the summer

16 comments:

  1. oh what a scrumptious colour... almost good enough to eat... mmmmm
    hugs
    Annette

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  2. Reading your tag sideways:
    "prunus leaves
    hot water
    bottle top
    3-1-11" [aka wait 2 weeks]
    Divinely simple & utterly gorgeous.

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  3. looks delicious and totally, absolutely edible...colors for the divine.

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  4. I love love LOVE the colour! (and the photos!)

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  5. Thats going te be one colorful summer.
    XXXm

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  6. thanks folks...and SPOT ON sweetpea! a ridiculously easy way to get colour into cloth
    and the best bit?
    when i gave the fragments a quick rinse, no colour washed out at all

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  7. visiting this morning and seeing summer, 16 below zero this morning. this was a balm.

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  8. I'm still new to all of what you're doing...but my love for nature as well as colours is a long grown one...
    The best part seems to me, that I feel like a child here...bouncing with exitement...so much surprise in putting something into a jar and waiting unpatiently until the magic is done.
    Wonder-ful!

    Well...it's winter over here :)

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  9. Great colour! It almost looks edible.

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  10. India can l ask quite question please...are the leaves fresh (green) or dried ( brown) when you p;ut boiling water over them?. this colour is my favorite and l could stand and stare at this image for hours. thanks for sharing Indiax

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  11. Lynda [and anyone else who cares to know]
    the leaves were fresh [purple] gathered under the tree [visible toward the bottom right of that collection of images]
    when steamed in a bundle they make a rather lovely print [from the underneath side of the leaf only]
    when steeped in hot water for an hour or so you get a lovely purple brew [that can be pushed to reddishness with lower pH or blues with higher pH or an aluminium or iron pot - the former more controllable, the latter tending to turn black if left too long]
    once the purple colour is extracted the leaves look dark green
    note that if the leaves are boiled you still get colour but it tends to be a brownish purple [anthocyanins don't respond well to excessive heat]
    hope this has been useful

    oh and the bits where the bottle top [steel] rested in contact with the cloth turned a lovely blue

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  12. how you get such rich intense colors is amazing- nature is fabulous I think. thank you you leaving an intriguing tea recipe on my blog post- can't wait to try it.

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  13. presuming that is an aussie prunus .... prunus including our native blackthorn, cherry, and 430 or so species from the northern hemisphere! though I got some pretty yellows from my victoria plum's fallen leaves ...

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