TinTin and I had another dye session last week, experimenting with different leaves, but we also broadened the subject matter, to include flowers, and added techniques – flower pounding and paste resist.
I used some of the cloth I dyed with onion skins to over dye with indigo, with some quite striking designs.
I also did a little more stitch resist, and am happy with this result
Played around with pleating and clamping
TinTin used a frangipani leaf as a resist and the result is beautiful, go to her lovely blog for a look PapayaLime
We made up bundles using a variety of leaves, and the most successful were rose leaves and Indian almond tree leaves, but we only left the bundles for one day, and I think next time we’ll try a week – or even 2!
Then we moved on to flower pounding, a Japanese technique called Hapa-zome. This was great fun and highly effective. We used cloth that had been pre-mordanted in alum.
Softer, fleshier leaves and petals worked best. We sandwiched them between cloth and pounded using a rubber mallet on a pile of newspaper. You can see a small 15 sec video of TinTin pounding this on my Instagram page https://instagram.com/chiaradiack/
The cloth was then steamed for an hour and washed. We lost some of the colour, but on the whole the results were quite exciting.
Then finally we worked with a paste resist and indigo. The paste is made of plain flour and water boiled up to a thick, gloopy paste, then a tiny bit of caustic soda is added, with continued cooking the paste turns honey coloured and extremely gluey. We smeared this on cloth, and etched into it, but also dipped feathers and leaves in it and pressed them onto the cloth. The cloth then had to dry as crisp as a biscuit before quick dips into the indigo vat. More skill is required with this technique!
Now it’s time for me to scrub clean my blue hands and feet and get back to some drawing and painting.
chiaradiack.wordpress.com 
It was a very exciting, with all the experiments. I left your place with lots of new ideas will continue in Digana next week!
It was fun too, thanks for coming, keep those ideas coming too!
This looks very interesting, Chiara! Lots of room for experimentation!
Thanks, Alison – yes sooo much room for experimentation.
So interesting! I was fascinated by your instagram video seeing the colours of the leaves and flowers start to come through the cloth. I also liked hearing the bird calling! And I love your dog!
Thanks Clare! The bird calling was a happy happening 🙂 and Toni is delighted you like her.
My pleasure Chiara!