More better...

LOL...like my daughter would say when she was little..."it's more better now mom"...

I overdyed my red, blue, green and mixed colored sampler sets and am definitely happier with the results. I also dyed an additional 4 sets and 2 rounds of ribbons. I have a few more to go but it was getting late and I needed to attend to mom duties.

Here are pics of "more better"...of course the lighting affects the colors a bit but in person, they are yummy!!

The blue set isn't so flat now.


The pale overdyed sampler is now rich and vibrant, my personal fave. Along with a new golden yellow set:


Two new sets here:


The overdyed reds to the left, darker than the picture (that darn sun!!). A new flame colored set in the middle and ribbons to the right:


And the greens now have more depth as well.

- c -

October is almost over??

Less than one week and it will be November!! Yikes!! The 20% off sale is still going on until Oct 31st, then I will start working on moving everything to the new storefront!! Woo Hoo!! I'm still fiddling with themes for the store but the basic setup is pretty much complete. It will be a bit of a pain to get everything moved over, but worth it in the end as the new store will have more functionality and easier to maintain.

Off to do some ironing. Never got back to dyeing although I did mix a bunch of dyes that had lost their potency. Oh, and also finished setting up my Etsy store the other day as well. Just a few items for starters. I have to be careful on Etsy though, boy are there some things I feel I HAVE to have...*grin*

- c -

*sigh*

Today I have been making the attempt to do Christmas-y colors. It ain't happenin'. At least not yet. I went and cut more stuff to work with just a bit ago.

The autumn thing seems to be working out somewhat but that wasn't what I was intending. Even got a spring'ish color mix. I suspect part of the problem is that I lost track of which dyes were mixed recently and which are older. I know all greens were done about two days ago so they are good to go. And with the exception of one, the reds are new as well. It's just other colors I don't remember.

Also, trying to just "do" instead of really getting into the groove is definitely affecting the outcome. For the samplers, the blues ended up too mid-tone, reds not deep enough and the greens I didn't even put up to dry, already slated for overdyeing. I may throw the red and blue sets back in as well but I needed a break. The ribbons are fine, I just won't list them as holiday'ish cause they aren't. With the exception of one set of reds, the rest will just be whatever color they end up being.



The reds are somewhat passable, a bit bright due to the lighting but still, not sure if they are as dark as I wish. I may give in and overdye to add a bit of a darker, richer red.


These ribbons I will leave as is. The lighting is definitely affecting the color, the rayon and silk are both a bit deeper than how they are here:


Not what I expected for blue. At least for me, it's too "spring-ish". Not the deeper, rich blues you often find in the Victorian color scheme or even Christmas in general. I know I have a navy floating around here so these are going back in the hopper for another go.

- c -

I should be dyeing...

But after a conversation with a customer about nuno felting, I got caught up in finding out more about it yesterday. Way cool!!! I've done a bit of needle felting and wet felting here and there but never really was gung ho about it at that time. Here are a couple of neat links I came across while out googling (that should be a word in the dictionary by now...)

HomeWork
Harlequin Feltworks

So, although I have a bunch of fibers cut up and awaiting a dye job, I decided to play instead on Saturday. So here are some pictures of my first attempt with nuno felting. It took awhile to get the fibers felted to the scarf, had to rewet a couple of times...but...voila!! Not a grand masterpiece, but defintely fun and a good start:

Close up of a back section. Cool how the fabric gets all bunchy and scrunchy. I am definitely going to try this again using silk chiffon or gauze.


I also got caught up in making felt balls. That was fun!! I didn't do them via washing machine. Just while sitting in front of the tv catching up on some of my recorded shows.

- c -

Fiddling

I haven't dyed anything this weekend. Did the pumpkin patch with the kids yesterday and that always ends up with all of us tired and ready for an evening of zoning when we get home.

But, I did bring up more "stuff" from downstairs to cut and dye this week and placed an order with Dharma Trading (most excellent-est store ever!!). Pro Chemical & Dye is another fave. They have a huge range of dye colors if you don't feel like mixing and playing to make up your own. Or when you feel lazy...LOL. I surfed the 'net a bit for some xmas color ideas. Most already matched some I had in mind and of course, some ideas I have just don't fit in the normal realm of xmas colors. But that's what makes it fun!! To do something unexpected and different. I have a special order to work on this week which is xmas colored based so I'll be able to do some for the webstore as well.

Speaking of webstores, here's a link to a customer of mine who raises her own sheep, hand dyes and does other cool stuff. Lucy's Sheep Camp is her store and I believe she has a storefront as well. Always fun to see the different artistic ventures people have!!

Here is some ribbon yarn that I ordered a while back and a skein from LYS. I look forward to playing with it soon. It's nylon so will have to whip up new batches of acid dyes. The last time I used acid dyes, outside of kettle/pot dyeing, was eons ago. I'm sure they don't have a lick of power left. I have a bunch of other neato yarns as well to dye when doing these.

Although some procion dyes will work on nylon and wool (as long as you use citric acid or vinegar, not soda ash). Just have to be aware that some colors can shift and you might not end up with the colors you originally started with. But that's half the fun sometimes!!!

- c -

October Sale...

Is going well and still in progress, check HERE for details or just head to the webstore. If you want to take a sneak peek at the new storefront, go HERE. Just note that there's nothing to order and not much other than the layout at the moment. But still kinda neat to know it's on the way!!

- c -

A day off...

So to speak. Got all current orders in the mail. I've actually been in the office so can't sneak off and dye during the day. This weekend I'll probably start whipping up some more stuff though. I have an order of rayon ribbons that should be there by Saturday so that will give me something to do ;) Have to get into the xmas color groove!!

- c -

Pretty Little Felts

I was chatting with a customer the other morning and she mentioned she found my webstore in the resources section of Pretty Little Felts. Wow, I'm famous!! LOL. Well, maybe not famous...he he he. But how awesome though!! So, I went to Border's and bought the book this morning...LOL

Wool and silk rovings are scanned, packaged and up on the store. Those were hard to part with, I just loved the colors!! So I had to keep just a little on the side for me. Even if I never use them, at least I can admire them...admiring and hoarding, my talents *grin*


wool roving...


silk roving...

- c -

Well, I gave in...

Dyed the wool and silk roving this evening, even went down and got more wool. Colors came out awesome!! Jewel tones for the most part...my personal fave!! I do have to remember that not everyone shares my passion for the deliciousness of these colors. So I'll do a round of more muted colors in a few days. Tomorrow I will break them down into pack collections for felting and silk fusion or whatever else someone wants to do with them!!

Still a little wet so the colors on the silks don't look as bright yet...but total awesomeness anyway!!

- c -

The fixins...

I brought some silk and wool roving upstairs earlier to dye later today or tomorrow and put in an order for more rayon ribbon, down to one spool!!! Oh no!!! Time to get some xmas colored ribbons done.

Being able to work from home sometimes is quite handy. I can sneak in time for some dyeing, blogging or packaging orders while on a conference call or when I just want a break. Although today it's been busy at work so not too much time for side activities. It's also a cloudy'ish day which makes it harder to get motivated. Better suited for packaging orders and webstuff than being creative.

The fixins...

- c -

Homework finished...

Ironed, cut and packaged my latest fabric sets. And dyed a bunch of ribbons and silk fabrics as well. AND got them all scanned and uploaded to the store. Debating what to work on next. Have the usual "around the house" stuff to get done although I have a bunch of roving I could dye while putting laundry away (yuk) and vacumming (yuk).

Some of the new ribbon sets...


- c -

October Sale

For the month of October, the 1st through the 31st, everything in the store is 20% off. Now since the silly storefront doesn't have auto discounting upon checkout, you will need to select check/money order as your payment method and I will then invoice via Paypal or email. Indicate in the comments section upon checkout how you'd like to pay.

Hopefully, when I get everything figured out, I will have the store setup in a new environment. Still working on bugs so for the moment...it's still located HERE.

- c -

I have homework tonight...

Ironing!!!

- c -

October has arrived...

I've been getting back into the dyeing groove, slowly. It used to be almost an obsession. Ok, it was. Coming up with new color combinations, experimenting with different items to dye. Then it just seemed to fizzle. For almost a year the last round of dyeing I had done was the day my husband passed away. He was visiting one of his daughters and I took the afternoon off to come home and play around. Well, that was 3 years ago, this month in fact. Over time I let the store fade a bit, I am now sole "owner", and just didn't know if I wanted to continue with it or not.

Well, in the past several months I've been getting a bit of the spark back. Some of it based on individual requests for specific dyed items or colors. Some of it because I just have all this "stuff" that begs for color!! Fabrics, trims, ribbons, roving and maybe even the cat!!

I found a fantastic little tutorial by Gillian from art-e-zine a couple of weeks ago. That's one of my favorite-ist places to go for mental inspiration. Oooooooo, and the colors, right up my alley!!

Well, off to post the October Sale info...

- c -