BIRTHDAY BOUQUET SCARFS

My husband gave me a dozen red roses for my birthday, and after I enjoyed them for a few days, I smashed them into a scarf:

Petals before going thru Press

Petals after going thru Press

The finished 12-Rose scarf

I also got a mixed bouquet.  I wish I had taken a picture, but I didn't.  The bouquet consisted of purple daisies (I think they were dyed - that is the brilliant pinks at the ends of the scarf),pink carnations, white chrysanthemums, and a yellow rose.

I arranged them, and then smashed them!

Birthday Bouquet Scarf

Now I can have my birthday flowers forever!

Detail of Birthday Bouquet Scarf

A HOTPLATE FOR THE STUDIO!

My new hot plate for the studio came today!  

RED MAPLE LEAF

I couldn't not use some of the leaves from the beautiful little red Maple tree that's in the front of our house.  I picked some of the really red leaves, laid them out on a little piece of prepared cotton.  I rolled the fabric up with the leaves inside and stuffed the works into a little jar.

Almost immediately the liquid started turning purple.  After a few days, it was a beautifully deep purple.

When I unrolled the fabric, I was surprised to see 'stripes'.  You can see a black skeleton of each leaf.  Here is the fabric, which is purple, and some of the leaves, which are still red.

MORE SILK SCARVES

And here are some (badly focused) close-ups of the one in the middle.  You can see quite a lot of leaf detail.

FIRST SILK SCARVES

Leaves, leaves leaves.

ENTERING THE SILK ROAD

I got a box from Dharma Trading today.  Oh, joy, oh, joy.

There are supplies I desperately needed AND some silk I ordered to experiment with.

I'm mordanting the silk today.

I start playing tomorrow.

AND THEN...