EXPERIMENTS with RUST #4 Conclusions...

With the end of November approaching fast it’s time to bring the rust dyeing

 experiments to a conclusion. This final piece of work sums up the past 

months of experimentation...

I would like to dedicate it to our very dear friend and neighbour 

Eric Geddes, 

who died last year on this day.

Eric was a sculptor and artist who for many decades, 

made the beaches of West Wight his studio.

He worked with materials found on the shoreline, 
constructing huge monumental structures from driftwood 
and smaller forms 
from clays, seaweed and stone.

COMPTON BAY : 1982 - 83

FORT VICTORIA : 1993 - 1998

ISHIGOROKO : mind of the stone
Compton Bay 1993 

Eric has been a great inspiration, especially over these past months, when I've 
been following a new experimental path that finally led

to me taking the feltwork and fabrics back to the beach to be photographed.

'ISHIGOROKO' was the inspiration behind my final piece.
Wrapping a stone with the rust-stained fabric, 
dyed from contact with Eric's welded metal sculpture, 

then placing it back in the sea at Freshwater Bay.

Hoping Eric would approve?

..

In memory of 

ERIC GEDDES

1st November 1928 - 28th November 2016

All EG images reproduced with kind permission of June Geddes 2017

EXPERIMENTS with RUST #3

After the rust dyeing experiments of the past weeks I was really curious to see 

how the techniques could be applied to felt, especially working in 3D...

Rust dyes react well to natural fibres. 
It seemed like a natural progression of ideas to combine the two organic processes….

 1) with moisture, friction + warmth wool WILL FELT 

and 2) with moisture + time iron metal WILL RUST

Like ALL natural processes, once all the right conditions are set in place, 

they are inevitable, unstoppable and irreversible . 

So combining these two should produce some interesting results?

I felted simple bowls using pure white merino and natural BFL. 

The surface of the merino bowl was covered with patches of wire wool, 

kept in place with crepe bandage and soaked with a water/vinegar solution. 

After a couple of days a rich rust stain had developed...

The stronger BFL bowl was deliberately made thicker to support nuts + bolts, 

pierced through the felt, and rusted washers sewn onto the surface. 

This bowl was taken down to the Bay and soaked in seawater to act as

 the wetting agent and help accelerate the rusting process.

I also wanted to repeat the previous fabric dyeing experiments using felt. 

This time I wrapped the rusted shapes with strips of pre-felt 

using similar shibori-style techniques - 

stitching, wrapping and pleating the felt around the pieces….

 then wetting with sea water and leaving to dry for several 

days before unwrapping …

Some pieces were easier to unwrap than others!

 In places the nuts + bolts and safety pin fasteners had completely 

rusted and were impossible to undo….

And amazingly... with the more tightly bound bundles the fine wool fibres 

had actually ‘felted’ into the rusting metal. 

Fused together the metal + fibre were almost impossible to prise apart!

Where I could unravel the strips the rust stains had left some 

wonderful fuzzy impressions, more characteristic of felt and totally different

 to the previous woven fabric experiments—as might be expected!

I’m so fortunate to live by the sea, and like all coastal locations when you 

start to look closely you notice rust everywhere, permanently staining 

stone defences and eating away metal stairs and handrails!

 Evidence of man’s constant battle against the elements—but providing

some brilliant backdrops for the rust dyeing when the pieces 

were bought back to the Bay to photograph….

The pure white Merino bowl developed the mottled rich rusty colour 

from the wire wool in a couple of days.

The rust stains from the nuts + bolts on the BFL bowl took longer

to develop over a couple of weeks, but the dramatic effect was worth the wait!

 I’ve got more ideas for 3-D feltwork incorporating metal shapes and 

I hope these will come together soon...

Meantime some more photos taken on a beautiful late October 

afternoon at Freshwater Bay which you can click on to enlarge

And you can catch-up on my summer of rust dyeing 

Experiments #1 and Experiments #2 by following these links
or scrolling down to the previous posts...

EXPERIMENTS with RUST #2

As the long hot summer days continue into September, 

so does my fascination with the rust dyeing…

More rusty objects and interesting shapes have turned up on my doorstep, 

including lots more tools, and even a rusted sculpture... 

 Previously I’d been using vinegar + water to wet cloth, but on-line research

led me to discover alternatives such as teas, fruit drinks and even red wine!  

They are all organic + acidic, but the dyed results are more subtle compared with 
the rich orange/brown tones achieved with vinegar. 

All these liquids not only wet fabric but their mild acidity reacts with iron 

and helps speed up the rusting process.

Salt can also be used as a wetting agent and living a stone’s throw 

from the sea I thought I’d try sea water. 

Up to now I’ve been dyeing fabric so I decided to experiment with paper, 

taking a range of qualities (some thick water colour paper + fine tissue)
down to the Bay to soak in the sea…

Instead of wrapping & binding the rusty pieces I placed them directly 

on top of this damp paper, hoping they would leave impressions…   

Keeping everything damp with sea water these 

dramatic results were produced in a day

In complete contrast 
these soft ‘ghostly’ prints were made in exactly the 

same way but using tea as the wetting agent...

I was curious to see whether the rusted metal sculpture would give up any colour?
It was made by our dear friend & neighbour Eric Geddes
and had been sitting in his studio for many years.

I draped it with damp cloth + tissue paper wetted with vinegar,

 left it for just a day, and this amazing colour developed...

I was careful not to disturb the process, letting 

 the cloth + paper completely dry out

... before slowly peeling them apart…

The rusting not only dyed the cloth with this wonderful patterning 

but it produced a brilliant new patina on the surface of the sculpture 

which I hope will remain...  I think Eric would approve!

At times during these past weeks I could have done 
with a “printers’ devil”...

A term remembered from art school days - used to describe a 

long-suffering friend with clean hands, who manipulated paper for you 
during a print-run when your hands were covered with ink… 

thus avoiding all those inky finger prints!

No such luck here in the shed—hence grubby finger marks everywhere!!!

But now I do have a fantastic collection of rust prints 

both on paper and fabric

to stitch, and make into books and collage...

And how does all of this fit in with my felt making…

Well the next posting will show how, as the rust experiments continue...


PS. Don't forget you can click on the photos for more details 

EXPERIMENTS with RUST #1

RUST dyeing has fascinated me for a long time, and although I have experimented with natural dyes over the years I haven’t been brave enough to try rust,

 so with plenty of long hot summer days ahead now seemed a perfect time.

All the basic materials were easily found around the house & garden. 
Old rusty tools, files & rasps, bolts & nails, iron filings, wire wool, even an old 
horse shoe. Anything made of iron that has seen better days - 

the older, the rustier, the better…

I also found lots of fabric scraps to dye, different weights of natural materials,

cotton, canvas & linen, cotton thread and wool…

Wrapping the rusty pieces with strips of damp cloth, then tying with strong thread 

was similar to the Shibori techniques I’ve been using recently when felting textures.

The tight binding secures the damp fabric around the rusted shapes and this 
close contact allows the rust to permanently dye the cloth with colour & pattern. 

Spraying with a mix of 50% water + vinegar keeps things 

moist and speeds up the process.

Oxidation soon sets in and I was surprised to find really strong colour

 had stained some pieces after just 24 hours,

 but not all... 

and these were left for another day.

.

 Unwrapping the bundles was really exciting -  

as with all dyeing, alchemy (or just chemistry) was at work here…

By the way I would recommend wearing rubber gloves, 
but it does make snipping threads & unravelling cloth tricky, 
especially when trying to photograph 

these amazing colours... 

(And you can click on the photos to enlarge) 

The rusting process can be stopped by neutralising the fabric. 

Soaking in a mild saline solution of 1 tbs salt/1 gallon water 
will help to set the colour.

 But rust does damage fabric. 
The minute particles remain on the fibre surface and continue to 
react and oxidize with moisture in the atmosphere, 

so fabric will disintegrate, often in a short space of time... 

It’s early days with these tests, but I have been warned!

Some of the results are SO dramatic that it would be a shame to lose them

Rust on iron tools and implements marks the passage of time. 

Many of my ’found’ objects had been left un-used for years... 

I experimented with lots of different rusty shapes...
the old hand tools found inside sheds + cupboards gave really strong
 intense colour quickly, whereas outside objects exposed to 
daily weathering, like this garden roller 
and drain gratings although rusty, didn’t work as well…

So this is just the start of my rust dyeing this summer … 

Word has got around and more rusty bits & pieces keep turning up… 

It’s been good fun so far, there will be more to follow...

SHIBORI TEXTURES

The recent SHIBORI TEXTURES workshops have been a great success!

Thanks to everyone who came along, well-prepared with piles of wonderful 
pre-felts AND lots of energy & enthusiasm to experiment with
all the different techniques and possibilities…

As explained in previous posts the SHIBORI stages involve folding, pleating, stitching 

and binding lots of different shapes and textures into the pre-felts. 
This could include buttons, beads and felt balls which all give different effects...

Here are some photos from the workshops of pre-felts, 
prepared and ready for further felting…

And here are some of the results after felting...

Lots of amazing felted textures,and organic shapes

  -  some quite random and unexpected - 

all extremely unique!

When these techniques are applied to pieces of feltwork, 

whether a flat 2-D picture or a 3-D vessel, they create textures and provide an
 extra dimension that can be further embellished 
with stitching and beading..

At the end of the workshops everyone went home with lots of 
wonderful samples

and plenty of ideas for future projects...

And so did I...!    

Summer SHIBORI workshops...

Having taking time away from felt making to prepare for my exhibition 

in April things are slowly getting back to normal again… 

A very big THANK YOU to everyone who came along to Quarr Abbey.

It was wonderful to have so many visitors - lots of friends & holiday makers. 

Don’t worry if you were unable to make it, there is another chance to see 
the exhibition in July and there’s more photos + info at 
www.strictlycommercial.info

Now it’s back to feltmaking with two SHIBORI workshops coming up this summer. 

There was a great response to the first workshop in March so I’ve arranged two 

new dates and there’s more details if you follow the link at the end of this post.

SHIBORI is a Japanese term used to describe the various techniques 
of knotting and binding cloth before dyeing, which results in wonderful
patterns and effects. 

3-D textures can also be created by twisting, folding, gathering 
and stitching into the fabric.

If SHIBORI techniques are applied to felt making at the pre-felt stage, 

then you continue to felt the material, the shaping remains 
permanent giving some unexpected results!

It adds another dimension to feltwork.  

Areas of texture can be introduced into flat felted pictures 
and 3-D work.enhancing and emphasising detail,
 which can be worked further with stitches and beads. 

The folds, ridges, bumps and pointy tendrils create some 

wonderful organic shapes!

The SHIBORI workshops are aimed at feltmakers with some experience and 

offer a chance to spend a day experimenting with these unusual techniques.

No pressure to achieve a finished piece, just trying out different fibres and effects,

felting lots of samples and enjoying the day with like-minded people… 

 I’m suggesting everyone comes along well-prepared with plenty of pre-felts so 

we can start immediately with the shibori stages. I will be demonstrating and

bringing along plenty of examples as you can see here…

  

And there are more details of the new workshop dates 

at Seely Hall in Brook if you follow this link...