Autumn blessings (part 2)

The art of being happy

lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things

Henry Ward Beecher

softly October

Soft autumn colours for Mosaic Monday

Thank you to my flickr friends and faves for sharing their beautiful work:

1. The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness
from common things - Henry Ward Beecher
2. 3. Blätter 4. Oak Leaves 20 Sep09

♥

~ thank you for visiting me and leaving such lovely comments ~
~ it's a pleasure to hear from you, when I know you are busy too ~

~ simple pleasures ~

to ramble along a dusty lane
to feel twigs snapping underfoot
to hear leaves rustling in the wind
and chance upon conkers and acorn cups

~ happiness ~

is a delicate sycamore seed
a falling leaf, a seed pod, a shell
raindrops and birdsong
an umbel shaped seedhead

~ happiness ~

is arranging autumn's finds in a playful way
and using nature's gifts to dye with

more avocado dyeing

Avocado

This was a bit of an experiment. I left the avocado skins in the fridge for a month so the skins darkened to almost black and the insides were quite brown. I wasn't sure they would work at all as it looked really yucky in the pan, but I still got an earthy pink from it eventually. I like the piece of scrim at the bottom ... crinkly like lace

Eucalyptus leaves

Eucalyptus leaves with a soothing aroma

Eucalyptus leaves

A dear friend gave me a huge bag of these leaves. They smell heavenly! I have only used a fraction so far. This is my first attempt at using the leaves to dye with. Next time I try it I shall try to get a stronger solution. This was a bit too watery. Anyhow, I got a gingery brown coloured dye and left the fabrics soaking in it for a week

The fabrics have a subtle yellow/brown. The silk especially is very pretty. I want to try this again. If I have a stronger solution I feel I may get a more vibrant ginger brown

Brown onion skins

A tried and tested favourite. I had been collectiong onion skins in a bag in the fridge for months until I had absolutely loads. I used the whole lot in one dye batch with not too much water and got such a strong colour almost immediately. I think the onions themselves (an English variety) were very strong indeed as I had such sore eyes from peeling them when cooking

I'm really pleased with these fabrics
They've been through the washing machine
and are still really deep in colour

The piece of lace (which is not a natural fabric)
came out a very pretty pale yellow

I also have some natural dyeing with montbretia (crocosmia) to share with you in the next post and some more hearts I made with the montbretia dyed fabrics (a paler, truer yellow)

from Cathy Cullis

~ happiness ~

is reading poetry
handling deliciously soft threads
sorting your stash
colourwashing/painting sketchbook pages
and preparing for new projects

Stef Francis threads in early autumn shades ... very inspiring!

Sketchbook pages

~ happiness ~

is spending time with friends
allowing yourself some time to play
and nice surprises in the post

Autumn inspiration

Art Sketchbooks Workshop

Julie and I both love the work of artist Sally MacCabe so we treated ourselves to Sally's sketchbooks workshop last Wednesday. Sally's studio and all her work and sketchbooks are just so wonderful you can't help but be inspired

The first thing we did was cover our sketchbooks to personalise our books and identify a theme. My sketchbook is going to be full of autumn inspiration so I chose pumpkin orange and gold for mine. We used gesso for texture and then acrylics to colour

I'm really pleased with the texture and colour gradiant. It's got a nice feel I want to keep handling it, which is a good thing!

We played with many techniques such as monoprinting, drawing with ink and water, wax resist, wet in wet watercolour and painted and stamped pages to make a Tim Holtz book

my tile - monoprinting

another tile - monoprinting

after a while the samples started piling up

playing with wax resist and wet in wet watercolour

pebbles in autumn colours

Sally cooked us a lovely lunch and then wouldn't let us leave the studio until we had stuck some things in our new sketchbooks. Julie and I both had such a lovely time. It was a grand day out :o)

~ happiness is a sweet surprise ~

The very next day I couldn't believe my luck but I had another lovely parcel with sweet gifts from Cathy ... some of her beautiful hand dyed fabrics, a small painting and one of her acorns