Experiments with natural dyes- onion skins and eggshells plus some frozen blueberries... inspired by Textile Museum of Canada featured artist Maria Tapal @zmarie93. You can see her tutorial in their Instagram "show and tell" story. This was an experiment based on what was around. The onion skins had been aspirational in jars for "sometime". For blue, best I could find in house was some frozen blueberries- more subtle than I would have thought considering how they stain everything else. I followed the same method as Marie outlined in her natural dying fabric tutorial: simmer the onion skins in a pot for about 20-30 minutes. I used red and yellow onion skins but there was not much difference. Yellow onion skins made a more vibrant orange, red more of a brown... she cautions against too much heat as it dulls the colour. Also, the dye works better when it's warm. Marie strained the skins out for a more even dye bath but they make bonus random textures on the eggshells. So, these were all made with commodity white eggs and basically two colours, and then various mark making: melted candle for a resist, tied on various green things from outside and the fridge with elastics, string, net from lemons. Very satisfying! Poured the leftover dye back in jars and knotted up some bits of old fabric to see how they look- still soaking.
Learning things.
This past week we did our first ever online workshop as guest facilitators with the Textile Museum of Canada. We had three runthroughs in advance of the event, because we agreed to open it up beyond our comfort level, but had great support from all involved. It was great! and full- 42 people on the waitlist so we will likely do it again. We are currently between grants so this is all volunteer for Works-in-Progress, but the benefits for our group are worth it. First, we are applying for grants to develop online materials and skills (because zeitgeist) so the experience is great. Plus, it is a great way to give back and fill a need in the maker community (because karma) And it was so much fun to meet the participants- people from Ohio, Yukon, Maine, North Dakota, London Ontario. The facilitators were in basements and kitchens and home studios in Toronto and Hamilton. And we are able to meet people beyond the teach in because of the huge maker community connected with the Textile Museum of Canada- many more people have been checking out our webpage, connecting on instagram and subscribing to the newsletter- welcome! And finally, more benefits: in my other hat I am a video editor/producer at Cityline and have a production company called HomemadeTV where I make videos with small groups and organizations celebrating community and telling stories. So I took the recorded workshop and made some shorter online resources like the one above. This video is all about up-cycled wool sweaters as a inspirational material for artists and artisans, and properties of wool that make it so attractive to work with. Marnie Saskin is a WIP artist but also has a home studio where she makes beautiful up-cycled goods (there's a few pix below.) She is an artist/scientist and knows a lot about wool through research and experimentation and experience and shares some of that knowledge in the video above. Check out the video or her website for more inspiration! We have had people reaching out with donations to the Works-in-Progress project so thank you! I have also started sharing supplies with people who are making masks or need things to do during this time. And personally, I have really enjoyed the care packages from friends and families. Everything has to sit outside or be wiped down which runs counter to my natural inclination, but learning patience as well. Storage is, as always, a problem so if anyone wants to make use of some of these donations, please let us know [email protected]. Here are some things that have arrived by mail or porch delivery or gloved hand-off. Thanks you all for donating and making and for your kindness and generousity. A lot of firsts! First of April (April Fool's Day) we were guest facilitators (strange days) for the first time with Textile Museum of Canada and it was the first time any of us had hosted an online workshop. So, we did a little prep...
Marnie and I got together last week to run it through with Leah, wearing her Textile Museum of Canada hat, although she is also part of Works-in-Progress, We decided we needed a proper tech run through with us in our roles, and brought in the communications person from the Textile Museum, Zile. The museum then ponied up for the pro software so we could have an hour and half meeting with multiple people. We capped it at 30 (it was a negotiation, Marnie and I thought it would be too many, but in the end about a third were active onscreen, the rest were logged on listening and communicating by chat. People were participating from Yukon, Maine, North Dakota, Toronto, London (Ontario :)) Amazing!! Leah sent out info to all the registrars in advance and shared docs during and after the workshop. Marnie set up a second camera for her hands, Leah did the switching between screens and switched audio on and off, and managed participants and I mostly monitored the chat and provided conversation and questions. Leah controlled the spotlight and could mute people (necessary in such a large group) but everyone could speak up when they wanted, either by unmuting or chatting. I would read comments/questions to Marnie. Marnie had physical examples to share on both cameras, and plenty of knowledge to share about materials, sewing and invited participants to share their own stories and show what they were making. I think we will do this again. Certainly a lovely bit of connection in these strange isolated times.
This one is for the ladies! This is a very rough attempt at teaching and learning together via internet meeting software. Marnie Saskin teaches Tanya Murdoch how to make a reusable cloth pad for overnight bleeding. The results are super ugly but it's just a pad! It will get better, and certainly better to both use this instead of tossing those old pjs, and also make something reuseable instead of throwing out those pads.
We are now in Covid 19 social distancing mode, stories of hoarding and the elevation of single use items are part of staying safe but as someone not in the line of fire, it brought on a search for alternatives. A CAVEAT: I am not a medical expert, these are for my own amusement- Tanya
Vinegar: I had already started making this lemon infused vinegar, but that is not in fact effective against viruses (but it does cut grease)... the lemons make it smell nice. Rinds only, for a week or two, then dilute the infused vinegar (sans rinds) with water about 1:1 and spray about. For later: Two bags of art project ready to go once this is past. DIY reusable wipes: this actually should work as well as your clorox or lysol, if you have the right material- we used 100% iso propyl alcohol and mixed 3:1 with aloe gel. poured that into a jar full of rags- I coiled them so you can pull them out like wipes. and made this little drawstring bag from a waxed napkin to collect the used rags and throw them in the wash. Again, not for hospitals but for home use... And finally, masks. these were based on a pattern developed by a surgeon in Taiwan, not the Covid 19 super masks , but equivalent to surgical masks if you line them non woven melt material... like the lining of sanitary pads or diapers or in a pinch, tshirt material. These can be washed and used again. Again, not for hospitals but if you want to wear a mask to the store but feel conflicted, these are prettier. There is a link on our useful info page to the pattern a helpful maker posted online along with an english translation. It involves a lot of ironing and pleats. Happy International Women's Day everyone! We spent it at our new favourite place, making things from other things at the cheerful Moss Park Market space- helps that it was warm and sunny too.
This workshop lead by the young but very experienced Gabrie (she has her own fashion label FuturisticRuins but makes upcycled things on the side with us.) and supported by Leah and Tanya from Works-in-Progress and our new playmate from Building Roots, Kate. Gabrie walked us through a simple drawstring bag pattern using the natural strengths of jeans and their seams. It was our first time with the full sweatshop setup, sewing machines and cutting boards, everyone had a turn at the pedal and made something beautiful Cairine sent us a photo of her finished bag with a happy cat- thanks for the show and tell! What a great Sunday! Got to play with 2 works in Progress artists and use some of what we learned last week at the handwarmer/ burning fabric workshop. The fire to identify tectile material was of course exciting, but the other takeaway was textile construction: most fabrics are either knit or weave (twill is a complex weave)
Sunday morning I (Tanya) worked with WIP artist Ines Scepanovic on an interactive art idea for the CCNM Eco Summit March 14. We learn through working. Basically, we were making hundreds of fabric strips from old textiles... limited palette of green and blue. the basic difference is weaves tear, knits don't. So we rolled those up and cut them like crepes. We then tied them into 4 strip grouping about 1.5 metres long to be braided together (info on how to do this on our useful info page) Our textile guru Marnie Saskin paid a visit in the afternoon, and she was working on a project weaving with knits... she made this two sided bag on a simple loom with T-shirt yarn in about 10 minutes! Cold Hands, Warm Heart, our second workshop in the Do-it-Together series we are doing with Building Roots at their Moss Park Market location. This time the series developer Kate Hamilton joined us as a participant, along with a couple of returnees and a few new people. The participants said they wanted to meet people, to return to sewing after failing out in grade 7 Home ec, to keep a friend company... it was a really good workshop.
We got people sewing fairly quickly after a quick introduction to the artists, to Works-in-Progress and then to some basic fabric types... after sewing and filling the hand-warmers, building Roots volunteer Leona brought our finished hand-warmers upstairs to heat up in the microwave while we enjoyed some blueberry muffins and burned stuff (for a burn test) to identify fabrics. Printing things onto cloth with an ink jet printer for making labels, then tried this experiment with printing text and photo onto a square of cotton sheet and then top-stitched and attached other fabric on top to interact with the text.
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