Experiment with Autumn leaves and banana flowers continued...

As we left it last time. 

Later last night. 

I poured the liquid into a jar - it looked quite a strong colour.

This morning - ready to unwrap. Colour looking good. 

Unfortunately the dark colour was where the leaves were showing through the loose weave of the fabric and when it was unrolled the fabric was just a peachy pink colour with a few darker smudges of slightly stronger colour.

The boiled leaves - soft and pale now. 

Fabric - not very interesting! 

The banana one is on the left, the leaf one on the right. Both very similar because they were boiled at the same time in the same water.

The banana bits were surprisingly in tact after two hours of boiling!

The string that tied the bundles has taken the colour better than the muslin.

And this is the fabric, rinsed and dried and concertinered to show variations in colour.

What have I learnt from this experiment? I would like to try again but next time I will steam the fabric rather than boiling it. I think most of the natural plant dye was lost in the liquid. It would probably be wise to keep the different plant material separate - although that might not be quite so necessary if I steam them.

What am I going to do with two lengths of fabric which at the moment look similar to old rags stained with some smudgy red shoe polish? I might stitch them and turn them into book covers. I might over-dye them with another colour. I'm not sure yet. It might be a while though because I really should be sorting out and packing ready to move but I needed an arty interlude.

Thank you very much for joining me. 

Experiment with Autumn leaves and banana flowers

I need to clear up the leaves I collected at Coombe Wood and the banana flowers. Hard to part with them - yes I know it's weird but they are so interesting!

First of all I took some photos - not unusual!

These are some of the outer, more developed banana flowers, which have been drying out for a week.

I love the curls! 

Some of the leaves I picked up yesterday. 

I had a thought - I've been meaning to try eco-dyeing since some of the people in my art group met to do some eco-dyeing but I wasn't able to join them. Now seemed like a good time to try it!

I washed some strips of muslin. I'm sure I have something with a closer weave but I don't know where it is at the moment so muslin will have to do.

I spread the strip of material out and arranged the leaves on it, then rolled the fabric around a short length of hazel branch and tied everything in place.

I put some dried banana flowers and fresher ones from under the fleshy petals, as well as some of those big "petals" onto the second strip of fabric 

and tied up that bundle. 

Both in the saucepan.

Beginning to boil. 

While the two bundles were boiling I had a closer look at the big leaf that I'd picked up yesterday at Coombe Wood.

Tiny hairs on the back make it feel like suede.

Half an hour of boiling - lid off for a quick peep. Things are happening - an hour and a half to go. 

Friends have told me stories of experiments with dyeing with natural materials that involve very smelly kitchens. Fortunately I seem to have chosen plant materials that smell quite pleasant! 

Results will follow whatever they are - I do hope there's something to show for this! First the mixture has to cool down naturally. I'll be back later.

Thank you very much for joining me. 

Sunny walk (Coombe Wood)

Another sunny and surprisingly warm walk! What a lovely bonus.

The gardener was planting bulbs  in all the gaps between the plants that he's put in recently.

Bulbs laid out ready for planting. 

As I passed the pond I must have disturbed some fish that had been basking near the surface - they left little ripples which spread and criss crossed across the pond.

Sunlit tree. 

Some of the pods on the golden rain tree have lost sections of their papery sides revealing more of the shiny seeds.

Looking closer at the tree that was lit up in the distance by the sun.

 Liquid amber tree

A little group of leaves under the tree. 

Lovely blue sky 

This red acer was covered in leaves a few days ago - now over half of them are on the ground underneath.

The big acer has gone a deeper orange. The little darker one looks as if it is shelterning underneath.

It was around this point that I decided to collect coloured leaves. I'd had an idea about arranging and photographing them but it was too breezy and they would have blown away so I brought them home with me instead - to do something else with. 

Back to the entrance.

Home again. The big leaf is 47x47cms. 

Gorgeous colours! I will be doing something else with these later. 

Thank you very much for joining me. 

A lot of red at Coombe Wood.

It wasn't very bright this morning but the sun did peep out a few times. 

The plants in the flowerbeds near the entrance have already grown a bit or else the gardener has squeezed some more in because there's less soil showing than last time.

A bright vine leaf. 

Red acer

This little acer has already shed most of its leaves. 

The acer at the top of the path is changing colour but still has most of its leaves. I met the gardener here - he was clearing litter. We stopped and had a conversation about banana flowers and acers etc.

 Zebra grass with crinkly seeds spraying out like little fireworks.

I was seranaded by the delightful chirruping of birds for most of my walk this morning. After a while I could also hear a machine in the distance. Possibly the gardener using the leaf blower?  

Little red acer. 

Further over - another red acer which has lost a lot of leaves.

Looking through that red acer to another little deeper red one. The purple callicarpa berries are behind the acer at the front.

Looking back to the trees beyond the prairie beds - two red trees overlapping.

The leaves on this little acer are blushing subtly but the stems are vibrant pink.

The banana plants have been cut down and the stumps have been surrounded with straw and wrapped with their protective winter coat. I found out from the gardener today that these banana plants are Japanese bananas (Musa Basjoo). Online information about whether the flowers are edible is very mixed so I don't think I'll be tempted to try a little bit of the flowers I came home with on Friday.

 Such an colourful corner leading into the woods.

Little red acer with a cascade of leaves

And on the right, higher up and quite easy to miss if you're not looking for them, there are some very colourful leaves.

Through the wooded area - trees thinning. 

One of my favourite acers in the distance. 

I spent quite a bit of time wandering under this tree looking up through the branches marvelling at the richness of the colours.

Under the big acer there's a much smaller dark red one. One of the orange leaves had fallen onto the dark red leaves showing the contrast of colours. 

Looking upwards again.

 
And down (hard to know where to look!) where a carpet of low growing ivy makes a lovely background for the fallen leaves.

The sun came out briefly lighting up the leaves. 

 Tearing myself away - past beech trees. 

Another little red acer. I love the way these splashes of colour are dotted around.

One of the pathways was covered in pale yellow leaves.

Around the corner another big red acer. I spent quite a while here too looking up through the leaves.

Two big leaves from other trees nearby had landed on this wonderful red acer making interesting patterns. There's a big oval one at the top of this photo and a jagged one at the bottom of the photo (once again so technical - I have no idea which trees these leaves come from - must look them up).

Another acer - very slender leaves. 

Yet another bright red acer and this one has loads of winged seeds on it.

 Spindleberries - many more are opening now. 

Salvia - Hot lips - still bright and cheerful. 

 Interesting way to change colour!

 Flamboyant fuchsias.

It's very easy to see how far the vine has scrambled up through the trees now that the leaves have changed colour so much. The bunches of grapes hanging high in the tree are shrivelling now.

The hops look quite droopy. 

As I passed the pond I happened to be looking in the right direction to catch sight of a large dark fish as it jumped up and splashed back into the water creating ripples that spread right to the edge of the pond.

All calm again. 

Thank you very much for joining me.