out and about

here's a snap of the delightful workspace deep inside the Beautiful Silks warehouse last week. i don't usually cope well with windowless spaces, being inherently claustrophobic, but the delicious aromas wafting from the dyepots and the knowledge that the great outdoors was being excessively warmed by dear old Sol conspired to calm the nerves.



assorted bundles in this little iron cauldron containing a simple brew of tap water and onion skins resulted in rather lovely samples shown below. bundling ensures a contract between dyed and undyed areas, nice patterning from string and rubber bands and of course more intense take-up of colour as the area of fibre exposed to the dye is reduced. you can also see that wool (darker coloured bits) takes up dye differently to cotton (the lighter bits!)





the samples below show the take up on two silks of different provenance. more details here