Saturday, March 17, 2012

Avacado dye and a sneak PULP peek!

I am excited to get my Labyrinth book back even though it was bitter sweet! It's not quite over for us Girla's but I am already looking forward to the day when the  chance to collaborate like this again comes my way! One of the things that bothered me most about my book wasn't that it might get lost in the post, it was actually the quality of my own work. Or, the poor quality! I don't think anyone else felt this way about it but it didn't take long before I did. When I sent my book off it was the best I had to offer. I was pleased with it. That said, I grew so much and so quickly from the exchange. Very quickly I knew I could do better than what I'd sent so I couldn't wait to re-do some of my own work. Above is a peek of a nights work. Here is what I made disappear. I am happy now.

These are the MOST AMAZING shades of grey I've ever seen. True story! The reason they excite me so much is because I made this dye from good ol' avos. Yes, avacados!
I didn't even know you could make avacado dye until I came across it on another blog and as luck would have it I had 2 avo's in the kitchen and no-one to eat them.

This was the darkest shade of grey I could achieve before my paper developed serious tension issues. I had to dye both side of the paper in the end, iron it and then flatten under books! Isn't it beautiful though?


If these look a little familiar to you it's because I've played with similar patterns before. They were indian ink and home made walnut dye. This time both my colours are home made dyes so for me that's a double happy! Amiria featured my background papers on her blog a while ago now. Check out the great selection of styles and  artist's here.

These ones really appeal to the wanna be graffiti artist in me! Some of them have a touch of walnut dye as well. With the last of my dye (2 avacados gave me enough to play with) I threw in some wet fabric scraps just to see what would happen. I like what happened!


Strangley enough, when I made this dye I expected to get pink not grey. As usualy I through bits of different methods together to make do with I had. It's ok though, I don't actually like pink!

2 comments:

Mick said...

Thank you for sharing so much information and so many new photographs of your dye work. That said, every time I finish a piece and send it on its way, after a week, a month or a year I realize I could've done better. It's a never ending process, Lisa. :)

Jill Zaheer said...

Lisa, Thank you so much for stopping by and leaving your comment. So glad to see your responses in Seth's book and the work you made is wonderful. It's a poignant story you've shared and very much appreciate it. My daughter has lots of special needs and so much of the time, it is a very helpless feeling- but know if we didn't do what we do, she would be that much less well off. Never heard of avocado dye- so this is a first for me and congrats on your success! I've been reading your last several posts and so glad I've come by for a visit. Will definitely be back soon!! Beautiful!! xo