Falling. Hard.

January 20, 2016 by curvylou 15 Comments

After about five days, my bundles started to mildew, so I stuck them in the freezer per instructions. When I thawed them several days later, the mildew was still growing, so I declared them done and unwrapped them prematurely, only to be totally gobsmacked by their exciting beauty.

Above, soy mordanted bundle with strings removed, ready to be unrolled. Milk mordanted bundle in the background.

Above, the backs of two fabrics prior to removing the leaves. Top, milk mordanted. Bottom, soy mordanted. On the bottom fabric, I LOVE the yellow leaf print with the black outlines, which are likely from iron and tannin in the leaves combining.

Above, milk bundle opened up. On the right-hand side, note the small, orangish pips from the seedy, unopened eucalyptus pods. ADORE. I think the yellow is from the gingko leaves, and possibly the eucalyptus. These dyes ran, and colored the background, as opposed to creating a solid leaf print. I love it.

Above, inside of the soy mordanted bundle. Along with the black-outlined yellow leaf, my heart beats fast over the outline made by the red bottle brush flower. It’s near the midline crease, in the upper quarter.

Above, here’s the bottle brush image, closer in.

Above, milk-mordanted maple leaf.

Above, milk-mordanted eucalyptus leaf.

Above, the entire soy-mordanted panel. The gingko leaves made firmer impressions here, yet the dye still ran, giving me a pure, yellow background that I love.

Above, purple, orange, and black maple leaf print on the edge of the soy-mordanted panel.

Above, these two smaller urine-mordanted panels were a surprise. In line with earlier urine-mordanted samples, I expected these to be boring and dull. Instead, they have gorgeous, subtle depth of color, shadings that raise my pulse rate, and one has a nearly pristine maple print.

Above, closer up on the urine-mordanted maple print, other fabrics layered behind.

Above, the edges make me drool. I am very excited by the edges.

Above, hanging to dry. Soy left, milk right.

Still wet; still beautiful.

Can’t stop taking pictures.

Sigh.

Aren’t they sweet? I will let them dry and cure for a few weeks, wash and press them, and then show you the final results.

But now that I’ve lured you in with all this beauty, I have to tell you the sad part, which is that these fabrics will fade an unpredictable amount as they dry. I think they will still be beautiful, I’m guessing they will not be as bright.

Isn’t that always the way with brightness?

But I will still love them.