SOEWN EARTH

The Earth Reliant Artist



Trace Willans All Natural Mixed Media







Monday, March 19, 2012

New Pouches


Two new pouches just put up on Etsy

There are a few more in the works.
If they don't sell I will be taking them to the two markets I have coming up locally
and then off to the Blue Mountains in April.
And at least one of them I will be keeping for myself.
x te

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Time Out to Relax

This week I have been at the Beach

In fact this beach

Every day I have walked

around the point

several times 
Sometimes on the grass
sometimes on the path
sometimes on the sand
and
best of all
sometimes in the water

It has been magical
x te

Monday, March 12, 2012

and the winner is

and the winner is
I have sent an email personally but will also say here
please contact me so I cna get this package in the mail.

I used a random number generator to make the choice for me
as I am currently in town staying in the caravan park
by the beach.
x te

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Tea Bag Explorations


It would seem that everyone these days is playing with tea bags and why not?
In our current climate of recycling they are easy and so versatile.
Now I don't drink tea but luckily my partner does
though only 2 cups a day!!!!
Which is hardly enough
So I thought that I would show you
what I have learnt so far about this humble material.



Tea Bag dyed with eucalyptus leaves in a clamp
consisting of 2 coffee tin lids and 2 fold back clamps(bulldog)
 in an iron rich pot
About 10 dyed at once
This is quite a subtle result



Tea Bag dyed as above except I brushed the leaves
with beaten egg white

Tea Bag dyed as above except I brushed the leaves
with beaten egg yol with a little water added



Then the other day I decided I would like to try for much more clarity in the prints
So here I placed baking/silicon paper between the lids and the teabags
and there were only 3 bags in the bundle
I also placed a small piece of open weave cotton cloth with one of the tea bags
This made no discernable marks on the tea bag print but still dyed very nicely
I once again used egg yolk

A tea bag
note I am not using cinerea this time

the silcon paper dyed beautifully as well
perhaps I will try waxed paper next time
for using in encaustic works

as the silicon paper dyed so well
I wondered how well water colour paper
would work to seperate the tea bags
and generate small prints in their own right
I pulled these apart while still wet

Here you can see that the egg stuck to the paper and tore it

I rubbed the paper off the tea bag
but didn't remove it entirely
as I was concerned about damaging the tea bag


And they all look great on the other side

the second lot in the same bundle
I left to dry
well i left it for a while then got impatient
and ironed it dry
This seems to have set the egg
and I had no trouble pulling
this lot apart


And here is the other side.

So there you have it
Naturally dyed tea bags
I look forward to hearing about your own ideas
on how to explore this are even more
For those of you who love the way these look
 but really don't wish to make your own I have
some of my tea bags for sale in my Etsy shop
More to come when my partner drinks more tea.

x te

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

The Giveaway Resumes

gesso, milk paint, earth pigment and natural resin on cloth

I thought it might be nice to show what i have so far collected for the giveaway bundle

stitch, starch paste, ink, egg, wax on cloth

natural dye on blanket

natural dye and stitch

scrap of stitch

Tea Bags!!!

gesso, natural resin and wax on paper

and of coourse some buttons.


a nice little collection

I will leave this open till the afternoon of
Monday March 12
my time
Those of you who left a comment on the last post
will automatically be put in the draw.
I would like to thank everyone for the
lovely comments and emails I received
in recent times.

x te




Slowly getting back into it

I have been quietly pottering about at home thinking, processing
and yes crying
It does sound a bit strange to say that dyeing
 has been a part of my recovery process
and today i put some of my tea bags on Etsy
As I have a large pile of them
I believe there will be more.
Well it's a start
x te