OAK LEAF HYDRANGEA

I couldn't resist this colorful Oak Leaf Hydrangea bush in Lincoln Park.  I picked some of the colorful leaves and found one flower where the petals had some color, pink edges - the rest were just plain white.

I took them home, spread the leaves evenly out on a prepared piece of fabric and ran it through the press.

There was color instantly - the red turned purple and there was a lot of green.  I should have taken the stems off.  No color came from them, and they actually inhibited color, and left a blank spot on the fabric.

Check out where the fabric and leaf hung off mat that was under the fabric and didn't get pressed.  The pressed part turned greenish-red, the unpressed part is the red that the leaf was originally:

I rolled the fabric up, leaving the leaves on it and left it overnight.  Here's the fabric.  You can see the outline of the leaves and the veins, it's very interesting.

Yes, this is the fabric!  It looks you're looking at the leaves through frosted glass - it's beautiful.

The one flower I brought home, I cut each little four-petaled flower off and arranged them in rows.  There wasn't enough to cover the little piece of fabric I was using, so I added some leftover leaves to the bottom.  Then I ran this whole thing through the press.  Afterward, I took the leaves and petals off and sprinkled salt over it and rolled it up and left it overnight.  The salt, an afterthought, caused the color to 'melt' a little, as you would expect salt to do.

The flowers left a mostly green imprint with a darker outline, where the pink had been, and in the very center is a little red spot.  I think there was a small pistil, yellow or pink, I can't remember.

I want to go back and get more!

CEDAR?

I saw these really beautiful little 'seeds' on the ground in the parking lot at Lincoln Park.  I gathered up about a cupful.  I think the tree is some sort of Cedar, but, who knows!

  I spread them out on fabric prepared with alum and soda ash, rolled it up in plastic and let it sit a few days.  When I unrolled it, it was like the picture above - white with yellow/gold spots.  I didn't really like it.  So, I spread them out evenly and ran it through the press.  That spread the color around a little, but not enough.  I moistened the fabric and let it soak with the smashed 'seeds' for another day.  Then I rinsed the fabric off, let it air dry and pressed it.  I can still smell the evergreen smell.  Very nice. I love the mottled golds and yellows.

CALLISTEMON - BOTTLE BRUSH

This was another specimen high on my list of gotta-gets while on our Southern California trip.  I wasn't sure of the name, but was calling it the Bottle Brush.  And, lo, that's it's common name!  Otherwise known as Callistemon, the flower resembles a bottle brush.  There are alot of these in the area, but I got my sample at the Huntington Library Museum (shhh, don't tell them) right out in front of the entrance!

The bush was covered with bees, and I was trying to be inconspicuous.  When I can't help myself and must get a sample from a plant, I try to take the samples from the back or bottom, or some place where it won't be as noticeable.  And, I spread the damage around to several different plants if possible.  I got a full sandwich baggie full and decided that was plenty, although I was wishing I could get a lot more!

When I got home I separated the red spikes from the receptacles.  This first piece of fabric I put just the red spikes on it, spread them around evenly, rolled it up tied it with string and stuck it in a jar.  I added warm water - 130 degrees - screwed on the lid and left it overnight.  It turned the most gorgeous purple.

I took the receptacles which had a few little red spikes in them and the leaves and spread them around on another piece of prepared fabric, rolled it up and tied it, put it in a jar, added the hot water.

I left them for a few days, and then opened the little packages.

As you can guess the beautiful purple came from the red spikes.  You can see where the ties had been.

The receptacle fabric was interesting also.  The purple was from the red spikes, the reddish brown is from the receptacles.  The leaves didn't leave much color.

I had put the remainder of the flowers I'd gathered into the freezer.  I put them in a nylon sock, and dunked them into hot water and crammed a little piece of prepared fabric in with them.  The initial release of color went swiftly into the fabric closest and created this very interesting pattern: 

ORANGE CALENDULA PETALS

One of the other exhibitors gave me their flowers at the end of the show.  Here are the orange Calendulas.

I had taken just the petals off and stored them in a ziploc baggie until we got home.  Then I put them into the freezer for several days.

I put the petals into hot water - 135 degrees - and put in the prepared fabric.

After a few minutes I began to think nothing was going to happen.  (Sometimes I'm a little impatient).

I took the flowers and fabric out of the liquid and spread out the fabric and started rubbing the petals into the fabric.  I smashed and ground and pushed them around equally.

Then I rolled the smashed petals up into the fabric and shoved the whole mess into a glass jar and left it overnight.

The color was looking pretty terrific.

When I took it out and rinsed it off, a little of the color went away, but the nice butter yellow stayed nicely.  There are little touches of orange, I don't know if you can see in this photo, but it's really nice.

RED BERRIES EQUALS GREEN?

I know I need to do more research about the plants I'm using!  For instance, while in Southern California recently, I picked red berries from this bush.  I took a picture of the bush, since I wasn't familiar with it.  As you can see - it's in the arroyo under the Colorado Street Bridge in Pasadena.

I put the berries into a ziploc baggie and put it into my baggage.  One week later when we arrived back home and I was sorting through the specimens I'd gathered on our travels I discovered the bag of berries.  They weren't looking too good!  They were soft and rotting and even starting to mold.  I smushed them up in the baggie then reluctantly (with nose closed) pour the mess into a glass jar and added a small piece of prepared fabric.

I left the mess in the jar for about 4 days.  You can see the color is in the fabric.

I took it out and rinsed the fabric really well and hung it up to dry.

Isn't it gorgeous?!  I wish I had made more.

EUCALYPTUS AND SOY

One of the main things I wanted to accomplish on our trip to Southern California was to gather some eucalyptus leaves. I had other things on my list, too.  But, foremost, I wanted eucalyptus.  In the fantastic book about dyeing fabric using plants and flowers, 

Eco Colour: Botanical Dyes for Beautiful Textiles she talks about eucalyptus quite a bit.  It seems some of the most wonderful colors will come from the warmer climes The author, India Flint, lives in Australia, the land of the weird and the wonderful.  

I prepared some fabric using soy milk.  It actually started to ferment. She says in her book, you can keep this soy soaked fabric for up to a year and it just keeps getting better and better for dyeing.  Hmmmm, we'll see about that.

Once I gathered some of the long leaves (and a few of the buds, which I kept separate) and some round leaves from another tree that look and smell like eucalyptus, except they are round shaped, I took them back to the hotel and rinsed them off and spread the damp leaves onto the soy-fabric.

I rolled the fabric up tightly and stuffed them into ziploc baggies.  That was a week ago on Thursday, October 14. I've been trying to keep them warm ever since.

A week later you can smell the fermentation going on, even with the bags closed.  I've got them in a bag by the heater register. Here's how they look now.  You can see some reddish color starting to develop.

A weird and wonderful experiment!

YELLOW WEEDS FROM PARK

I was bad.  I picked these yellow flowers from a local park.  I know it's not a good idea to pick flowers that are there for everyone's enjoyment, but, it is late fall and they won't be lasting too much longer, and, I only picked a few flowers from each plant (to minimize their absence).

And, I was bad, because I used these plants and I have no idea what they are!  I should make some attempt to figure out their name.  I've seen them around different areas, like a weed.  The plants grow to about 30" high, and are about 24" across a clump.  I didn't notice until I started to pick them that they have a very sticky 'sap' on them.  It's on the flower petals and the receptacle.  I picked the whole flower, and then when I got home, I separated the yellow petals from the green receptacles.

I made up three dye baths.  One for the green and yellowish receptacles, one for the yellow petals and another using onion skin from a yellow onion.  I left the fabrics in the dye baths for about three days.

Here are the results:

Left, the weed's receptacles, middle is the yellow petals, and right is the yellow onion skins.

I really like the unexpected variations of color from the receptacles.