Wednesday 10 July 2013

~ Mostly Cyanotype ~

Cyanotyping has taken hold! For the last few months, whenever there is the slightest hint of sunshine, My Man goes rushing to his observatory to take a solar image, and I race to the dark drawer to take out the previously prepared cyanotype cloths and papers and labels.

Over on What If Diaries, Jude, has been what~iffing buttons...one of my favourite things. It seemed a natural progression, (sympathetic evolution, as Jude would call it), to put buttons and cyanotype together, so yesterday, I was in a blue heaven....

It is so hot that I am actually wearing a dress! Almost unheard of.


I am so happy with the results of this What If

A little daisy managed to get in there too.....

.....and of course ~ moons

garden foliage has been put to good use







I wanted to have something of us three, as Our Boy could go off exploring at any time now. I had the idea of our handprints on an old piece of linen....and finally got Our Boy's print yesterday.
Top ~ My Man, centre ~ me, bottom ~ Our Boy


I love hands...it's the first thing I notice about a person. I have a textile piece I did of Our Boy's hand when he was much smaller...



We had some pretty peony blossoms in the garden


and when all the petals had fallen off...


I thought I would try dyeing with them....


...just an ordinary brown...but I like it.


I have been harvesting nettles...


....and drying them. I have a dryer, but, as my word for this year is 'simplicity', I prefer to try to keep to that whenever possible.


One I did a few months ago, on Indian cotton....my favourite for doing cyanotype on

Crepescular Rays on the way to work this morning...

A dew~dropped cobweb in the bay tree


A few weeks ago, when it was still cold, but things needed planting desperately. It has been so hot for a week...and we are soaking it all up....it is the first time since 2007 that we are having a summerLast night, we, (me and My Man), slept on the floor of my shed....with our heads by the open doors, so we could star~gaze. The street lights get turned off after midnight now, so we could see the Milky Way and the Summer Triangle. It was bliss. I didn't want to go to sleep, but I must have, as I was being woken up at 4am by a little bird trilling away at us, telling us it was time to get up :~))


So, I have been playing with cloth a lot, but not so much stitching recently....although I did this for the Super Moon last month...
Backed with silk,and, as
I tore it for a ragged 
edge, I thought, what if
I use the silk threads
to stitch it with. It is
the first time I have 
used silk for stitching.
Oh my..it is a completely
different experience....
the sound, the feel...


June Super Moon



I made.....

 a Sage Summer Solstice Flower Essence...

Sage enhances the capacity for drawing wisdom from experience and is particularly recommended for people who find it hard to find purpose and meaning in life. They may feel resentful about events in their lives, seeing them as ill-fated or undeserved.
Sage is a remedy especially suitable for our later years, for helping to accept what life throws up for us in a calm and detached way. It helps to enhance the wisdom that comes naturally from years of experience. Such wisdom enables us to be in touch with our spiritual selves, to perceive a higher purpose in life and to experience inner peace. It is a remedy to use during changes and transitions, as it enhances the sage in all of us.
Anne McIntyre

I so love making flower essences. 
I made my very first one, Elder, on the Summer Solstice of 2001, and I was hooked from that day. 
To ask the spirit of a plant if we can work with them, and to receive the unmistakeable yes or no 'reply', whether it be for flower essences, or for making herbal remedies, is one of the most special experiences in my life....it is something I have done since I was a young child in one way or another, and it never fails to uplift.

It has been impossible to catch up here, but I have tried to include some of the things I've been doing for the last weeks.

We are sleeping in the shed again tonight....can't wait.

Cariad Mawr
H x

17 comments:

  1. I have been well rewarded for my excitement in seeing your name come up! I was just about to shut down, but had to read your post first...so good to see all you've been up to. Pure magic. All of it. Blessings to you and yours.

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    1. oh thank you Nancy...it's so good to see you here...I have neglected blog land for so long. Blessings back x x x

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  2. oh, oh, oh! great stuff!

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  3. love the blueness of all your cyanotype prints especially your "feather floating in the blue", what a beauty! The lovely warmth of your summer day is flowing down to this cold morning in the Land Down Under thank you for sharing!

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    1. Thank you Mo.....I was so happy with that feather :~)

      The crows have been ganging up on the magpies here recently...it's quite a spectacle....and very noisy!

      So glad some of our warmth (which is still continuing...YAY) flowed down your way.

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  4. Hi, Helen. Very enjoyable post. The blues you have gotten are sumptuous--so intense--and the images of buttons are cool.
    best, nadia

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    1. Thank you Nadia. I love the blues of cyanotype....and the whole process
      really.

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  5. My first visit here ... coming over from "What if Diaries ", I love the little daisies on the cyanotype , such fragility captured ... do you have a blogpost tutorial somehwere on how to prepare cyano cloth ? Can it be overdyed too ? Ohh so much inspiration, I am glad I stopped by ...
    Waving over from North/West Wales
    .. Milliande :-)

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    1. Welcome Milliande, and thank you for visiting...diolch :~) That daisy was a treat, as the petals had not shown up on the labels I'd tried. I had not thought of a tutorial....but I am now! :~))) I haven't tried overdying. I do use soya milk to prepare the cloth first....it helps hold the colour during washing. Waving back from a still sunny South West Wales :~))) Hwyl fawr on

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  6. If you get round to it, I look forward to a tutorial :), been steaming away fennel and black peppermint cloth all afternoon in the sun ... :)

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  7. the shed, the stars, the loved one, certainly bliss.

    those cynotypes are just so lovely and seem to scream with potential.

    i so enjoy the feel of different yarns to stitch with, each a different personality.

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    1. Hey Monica....bliss ~ yes :~)

      The cyanotype has not let go of its grip for the last three years....

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  8. I loved this, every single photo and every single word. :) It's so good to see you and what you've been doing. I want to work with cyanotyping now, too, haven't done it since I homeschooled my kids -- but think it was paper we used, not cloth? Just wonderful, Helen. Blessings to you. xo

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    1. Hey Pegggggyyyy :~))))

      Thank you for visiting...it's so good to see you.

      I think paper is more commonly used for the cyanotype prints, but cloth is definitely getting more popular...and it is so much fun and so thrilling to see the results happen in front of your eyes. Enjoy, and I look forward to seeing your playing results :~)

      Blessings back x x x

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  9. so glad to see you here again...I wonder how you are over there! the hands and moons! beautiful goings ons as always. this week I found an old package of cloth for sunprinting & have been playing around with it. happiness to you!

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  10. Such a long time since I last saw you, and we never did meet to crochet gloves! Your post is full of light and inspiration and I love the videos you're posting! The cyanotype pieces are beautiful. So good to see you so well and happily creating beauty all around you!

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