renegade san francisco this weekend

come visit me at booth #148 at the fort mason center this weekend!

shout outs on the web

http://harlemlove.tumblr.com/post/3297634979/bricolagable

bricolag(e)able hats with a Vintage feel…

My new favorite accessory on the market is Hats! A simple yet fashionable accessory that can vamp anyone’s style. bricola(e)able, a seller on etsy, offers a small collection of hats made from recycled, vintage, or sustainable materials. What first caught my eye when I saw one of their hats was the inspiration behind it. These hats remind me of an olden day equestrian hat, paperboy hat, and 1950s kids baseball cap.

http://www.ecouterre.com/reclaimed-wool-hats-by-bricolagable-support-senior-dog-rescue/

Reclaimed-Wool Hats by Bricolagable Support Senior-Dog Rescue

by Jasmin Malik Chua, 02/16/11

Spring may be coming early this year, according to a certain oracular groundhog, but that doesn’t mean your punim should suffer through brain-freezing temps in the interim. Put a lid on it with one of Bricolagable’s jaunty coed caps, made from 100 percent reclaimed wool and lined with cotton to stave away the itchies. Only two or three of each design available, so they’re super-limited-edition. Plus, 10 percent of all proceeds will go to Muttville, which rescues, fosters, and advocates for senior pooches.

+ Hat $42

+ Bricolagable

holiday madness

come visit bricolag(e)able and venn apparel at renegade's holiday sale next weekend!
we are booth #33 - and remember, it's at the concourse center this time NOT fort mason!

thanks to everyone who came out to root division's holiday sale last night! it was a blast and a nice way to gear up for renegade next weekend and allowed me to make another donation to www.muttville.org which is going to be doubled thanks to some generous sponsorship- horray!

hats & cowls- the ultimate stash busters

recovering from renegade

renegade was amazing and exhausting. 2 days surrounded by creative people and many, many cute dogs! hopefully we will come back at christmas for the holiday fair. now i'm in post renegade clean-up mode and slowly posting my remaining inventory on etsy.

had to share- brilliant bias tape method!

i found this on my never ending hunt for 1/2" double fold organic cotton bias tape that i won't have to dye myself (i.e.not cream). while the search continues i found this great tutorial by erin compton design on how to make you own tape withithout having to sew a million of those dyslexia inducing bias seams! thank you, you brilliant woman!

renegade's sneaking up on me!

where does the time go!?
renegade is 11 days away and i am gearing up for elf-mode overdrive - so much to do!
i'm beyond excited to have myself planted amongst 200+ vendors for two days and trying to warm up those self control muscles that will hopefully keep me from immediately spending all the money i make;)
come visit me and venn apparel at booth #158 (far left aisle- middle of the first cluster on the right)

capsule was a blast aside from the display-destroying wind gusts every few minutes;)
got to drink wonderful free coffee from the lovely folks at the bicycle coffee company who were sharing our booth- yummm.

capsul street fair may 23rd

i'll be sharing a booth with a lovely scarf diva and sassy paper maker at booth #51

Date:
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Time:
11:00am - 6:00pm
Location:
Hayes Green @ Hayes/Octavia
san francisco, ca

pillows on the brain (still)

doggies muses

amazing mattress knitting with tree trunk needles

childhood hamster finds its way home 20lbs heavier over a decade later

daisy is that you in my garden? i thought you were dead! MY how you've grown...

stop munching on my grass you little hefer!

mushroom hunting in my garden bed

look at what i found growing in my lettuce patch and under my dyer's chamomille! i think they may be landscape morels- of course i had to nerd out and join a morel hunter's website- now i just have to post my photos and get opinions , but i think the fully hollow centers are a good sign (though i am officially not eating any unidentified fungi)

down and dirty with natural dyes

a quick how-to/show-to on natural dyeing

(quick for me anyway)

materials :
should be designated as "dye only" - just because these dyes are natural doesn't mean you should eat them

pot*
stirring spoon or tongs
measuring spoons
jars/jugs/containers
blender/chopper
stove top

cooking thermometer

(optional) closeable cloth sac

*preferably stainless steel (different metals have different effects on dye color - aluminum may dull colors, copper will change colors and improves the light fastness of some dyes)

prep work: mordant your fiber

for optimal color and light fastness most natural dyes need something to hold onto which is where the mordant comes in -there are a bunch to choose from but only a few that i consider safe tannins (those derived from plants such as oak, sumac and black tea or tannic acid) and alum which is a kitchen grade pickling spice that can be used to water acid loving plants once you're finished with it- cream of tarter is a good companion to alum but not for madder

i use 4tbls/2oz of alum per pound of wool

make sure your wool is clean and thoroughly wet (soak in warm water with a touch of shampoo for at least 30min)

dissolve mordant in jar or container with hot or boiling water then stir in dissolved contents to your water filled pot

add wet wool to pot - make sure the fiber and the water in the pot are around the same temp. slowly heat pot to between 180-195 degrees holding temp. for at least 30 min, 1 hour is better- DO NOT BOIL YOUR WOOL

(if you are looking to dye your fiber evenly it should have ample room to move around in the pot - you can also rotate the goods around but do this carefully since hot water + agitation can cause your wool to felt)

allow pot to cool completely before removing fibers - allowing this to happen overnight is best

gently rinse fibers and proceed to dyeing

1) soak your dried dye stuffs

(unnecessary if you are using fresh plants/berries etc.)
i usually pour hot or boiling water over them in a jar then seal it up and forget about it for a couple of weeks/months;) but soaking overnight will suffice

(above: brazilwood, lac, madder)

2)pulverize it

- no, not in your food blender-

madder dye comes from the plant's roots and they do NOT like to be ground up so i snap the roots into smaller pieces first and then soak them for a good long while before i try and grind them up in my dye-only blender

soaked and snapped madder roots fighting the blender

3)cook 'em up
put your ground up dye parts into a pot with some water and heat for 30min to an hour or until the water looks thoroughly colored DO NOT BOIL your madder roots (some dyes, madder being one of them, loose their color/dull/turn brown if cooked at too high a temp) use a cooking thermometer to monitor and keep temp around 140-165 (other dyes can be stewed at higher temps or boiled during extraction but NOT when the wool is in there)

pulverized madder roots simmering in water to made dye bath

4) bootlegging your bath

after dye has had a solid simmer, strain the roots/dye parts out of the water (now your "dye liquor" or bath) - put aside the dye bath and repeat the process with fresh water (you will be mixing all these together later if you are going to do immersion dyeing )

at this point i usually put the strained dye parts into an over sized, makeshift tea bag of sort- the one below i actually made to be a sand bag but never got around to filling it- its a medium weight cotton canvas and works fine but if i were making it specifically for dying i would use a lighter weight fabric with a slightly looser weave and would have washed it first to remove any sizings/finishes since i really had to fight with this one to get it to strain.

bagging up your dye parts saves straining them each time you change the water and works great so long as a) the top is tied, b) the dye parts have enough room to move around in the bag

repeat steeping with clear water until no more color is left or until you have as much as you need (for the latter you can lay your dye bits on a screen to dry, put them away and re use them in the future for more muted dyes)

5) bath time for the woolies

time to dye your wool! in a pot big enough to let your woolies swim freely fill with enough water to cover your fiber and add some dye liquor- how much depends on you

(i am cheating with my visual aids -this is not a madder dye bath but rather a very overstuffed mixed dye bath i was trying to exhaust..apologies;)

darker shades can be attained, obviously, by adding more dye but dye guru, michele wipplinger of earth hues, suggests using multiple immersions to give the fiber a darker, more lustrous color- to do this simply remove the fiber from the dye bath after a half hour or so, add more dye liquor to the dye pot and reintroduce fiber (this can be done as many times as you like)

remember when eyeballing the color that wool dries 1-2 shades lighter than it appears in the bath

the temperature of the madder dye bath should be raised slowly once the wool has been added and maintained between 140-165 for at least an hour and allowed to cool over night

fiber can then be rinsed or can be air cured for a few days before rinsing

-painting's another story and another post-

when beans fly

i honestly never thought i would have a real, live garden and settled for an overly crowded studio with plants hanging from the walls, growing in old desk drawers and relying on energy saving light bulbs as supplemental sunshine.oddly enough, my safflower dye plants preferred it under my work table- they kicked it within a week of the move:( R.I.P little seedlings)

true, i did manage to grow potatoes in my living room, but i'm not convinced they were edible

(though that didn't stop me from keeping them in a bowl for 3 months as a trophy;)

but small successes aside my plants prefer their new outdoor life and after almost 5 months of an intensive dirt relocation program which has included:

• digging up beer bottles and glass shards


• hand picking tiny pieces plastic garden fencing (soooooooooo not biodegradable) and plastic mesh


• exhuming 1 kitty skeleton (we hope) which, despite my pleas, c. will not allow me to repatriate into a house pet:(


• unearthing and moving 3 dozen brick patio slabs


• moving and re-moving more dirt that i ever thought possible (not possible after the wheelbarrow tire goes flat)
  
• i will have to find some "before" pictures to post so i can brag more completely;) but the point is improvement! indoor hanging plants are happier in windows receiving actual sunshine

francis can now play in the back yard without broken glass as an obstacle course and she has some drought resistant grass of her very own to pee on and kill.

and i have a raised garden bed made from some of those dug-up brick slabs

after killing myself trying to level the ground enough to make the remaining slabs lay flat and patio-style i realized it was never going to happen without something, or someone, more hardcore than me, my shovel and my two stomping feet (which are surprisingly good levelers actually) - so started over and went for the "stagger" effect, hopefully my baby's tears will fill in nicely and obscure the crooked and slightly sloping end result.

so after many pulled muscles and much dirt relocation i am rewarded with flying lima beans babies!

First, a bobble headed baby literally erupts from the soil,

gets shy for a moment after it's very pushy entrance and tentatively checks out the situation..if all's well...

it turns into batman!


... and just lets it all hang out- i mean wow- they are like little alien creatures exploding out of their host mama bean. now i just have to convince some unidentified buggies to stop munching on their ginormous leaves and leave some for us (necessary pun- i won't apologize;)

the mixed greens i planted are less fascinating but very rewarding

less than a month after planting the seeds we've already had our first garden-picked salad and

it was crunchy and delicious.

a month of making

i've actually been finishing some things this month! (i think it is an adverse, though productive, byproduct of my birthday)..made a lamp shade out of old x-rays, a drumstick case for my sweetheart, dyed some recycled merino wool and cashmere with quebacho and logwood plant dyes, spun up the roving i dyed this summer and spun up all 'loosey goosey', made some pin cushions, and of course, pillows.