Is silk eco friendly?

As with all fibres, there is often a debate about how environmentally friendly they are. I found this article on the site of Beautiful Silks, my supplier for silk, talking about silk and soy silk:
http://www.beautifulsilks.com/pages/products/ecofriendly.html

http://www.etsy.com/listing/58897727/plum-nuno-felt-shawl

Life as an artist

I found this on twitter today:
There's no retirement for an artist, it's your way of living so there's no end to it - Henry Moore

Totally true for me. I can't stop creating.

Here is a new one out of recycled fabric:

Green upcycled nuno felt shawl - squared

More dye experiments

Next to my market stall at the Port Douglas market, there is a tree that intrigued me. It dropped beautiful red leaves as well as yellow and green leaves at about 6 months ago. So I decided to do eco print samples with the green leaves and the red ones, of course, hoping that I would get a beautiful red. I know it doesn't work like that though. I don't know the name of the tree but someone told me it is called dead horse tree. I cannot find a tree named like that, so it is probably some local common name. The name comes from the fact that the blossoms smell like a dead animal. Anyway, I show the results of my dyeing here, I did them 6 months ago and they have become darker since. The photos are taken a few days ago. I haven't added any iron, just alum.

red leaves

green leaves

green leaves and lemon

As I said, the colours were very pale in the beginning and they gradually became darker. I have seen that more with the eco dyeing. I have it with another piece, I will make photos and post it as well.

Mangosteen skins on cotton

Here is a dye sample with mangosteen skins. The mangosteen skins were hammered onto the cotton when they were still fresh.More about dyeing with mangosteen skins:

http://lizetfrijters.blogspot.com/2010/05/dyeing-with-mangosteen-skins.html

A Rainbow Palette

A great article about a small business in natural dyeing in handeye magazine.

A Rainbow Palette

Small Felted Handbags and Purses

I have been in a bag making mood lately and made several little felt bags. They are all made in one piece with the resist technique.

A tutorial for how to make them will follow.

Find them in my etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/lizetfrijters?section_id=5803390

The Colours of an Ocean Sunset

''THE COLOURS OF AN OCEAN SUNSET' - Part 1' by JulieAnnsJewels

The DUST Team has a sale each month and for November it's...'THE COLOURS OF AN OCEAN SUNSET' Find all our SALE items in here

dustteamsale 30 perc off- Or... lizetfrijters $49.00	25 PERCENT OFF THE MARKED PR... baublesforbell... $89.00	Necklace, Copper, Carnelian ... JulieAnnsJewel... $40.00	Clouds in the sky felt pincu... spincushions $16.00
FREE SHIPPING earth necklace savagekitten $40.00	ON SALE Handmade Teapot Cozy... stitchybritt $29.75	25 PERCENT OFF THE MARKED PR... baublesforbell... $36.00	FREE WORLDWIDE SHIPPING - Ci... OrganicsJewelr... $39.00
Golden Starflower reduced pepenewton $20.00	25 PERCENT OFF THE MARKED PR... lushbaubles $29.00	Henry Monkey. Handmade from ... twinklekids2 $26.00	FREE SHIPPING - 20 percent o... TreasuresOfThe... $27.00
on sale . pale ocean . fine ... gretchenmist $16.00	SALE Scissor fob, zipper pul... jskipcreations $5.00	Necklace In Blue and Green B... AndAllThingsNi... $30.00	Kaftan Dress Chiffon Velvet ... MayBrady $99.00

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The magical one hundred

When I looked at my page at facebook yesterday, 100 people liked my page. Today, 100 are following my blog. Thanks everyone for staying in touch.