Tea dyeing, crafty buying, messing about with beads and clay

 

Sunday afternoon, another week about to roll into view.  I've been for a brisk autumnal walk around a local RSPB nature reserve, coming back with a pocketful of pretty brown feathers and a handful of dried grasses and seed heads, the vague aim being to either sketch them or to make a little stitched piece with them as a reference and starting point.  

This tea-dyed white cotton that I just dyed might come in handy for something stitchy, but I might over-dye it as the colour's not especially strong.  Some interesting lines from where I folded & tied the material though.  

I also dyed this piece, using blackberries, and getting a good combination of pale and darker purples.  

I've been trying a few odds & ends of crafty projects this week.  I'd a small bag of kilt pins, ordered in error when I should've chosen large safety pins instead, and was wondering what to do with them.  Thought I'd make something beaded that might be a bag charm or dangle off the spine of a journal.  It's sort-of successful, but not quite right, so I'll have another go and see what I can come up with.  

I also had a half-used packet of air-dry clay, so decided to make a cluster of - what can I call them? - pendants?  They might be used on a wall hanging or for a wind chime.  I pressed a couple of home made stamps into some of them, and leaves from the garden into others.  Sage leaves are particularly good as they press well into the clay and you see all the veining on them.  

I let the clay dry for about 48 hours, and am halfway through painting both sides in acrylic.  I'll show you them when they're finished.  

Another experiment has been homemade washi tape.  I used lengths of brown packaging tape, the sort that's coated on the back with adhesive that needs to be activated by water.  I've used the gell plate and acrylic paint, plus stencils and stamps, and I'll add more detail to these before I'm entirely happy with the effect.  

Not too bad for a first attempt.  

Maybe I'll try decorating another length of washi tape in festive colours using the printing stamps I bought yesterday.  Lucky finds in the charity shop, and less than three quid for the lot.  An embossing folder in a Christmas tree pattern, several holly leaf shaped stamps and a large snowflake die cut.  It's always worth a rummage around the bric a brac section as you never know what you'll find.  

Bye for now, and thanks for stopping by my blog.