Better Living through . . . chemicals??

My Saturday started with a romp through the attic to find the propane burner I'd promised to take to the Tulsa Handspinners picnic where it was to be used to support and heat a cauldron of wood bark, seeds or insect parts for use to dye wool. Then I loaded up the spinning wheel and took off to get a full tank of propane.

The picnic was held at Barbara & Dale's home and animal emporium. They have doves, ducks, chickens, geese, a koi pond, rabbits, goats and who knows WHAT ELSE. I know these little ducklings are one and two days old.



While the dye pots were heating up, Jeanine taught
us how to do silk fusion, which is a process kind of like making paper, only using silk fibers. I'm pleased with what I created. The idea is to cut the resulting fiber into bookmarks, but I think I'll use it to mat a photograph. It was super easy to do and the results were gorgeous.

Then, the dying began. I chose to dye some roving (to be later spun into yarn) and some already spun yarn. And, because one can NEVER have enough fiber, or I can't, I bought an alpaca and silk blend from Janice Robinson of JR Alpacas in Oklahoma City. Dyepots with osage orange (yellow), madder root (brown), cochineal (pinkish) were available.
I chose to dye my stuff in indigo (blue jean blue) and logwood (purple).



And, after the fusing of silk, dying of wool, and eating of barbecue, it was time to go home for more chemical fun.

On Friday night I mixed up fresh darkroom chemicals to work down my stash of 13 rolls of
undeveloped film. 10:30 pm all 13 rolls were developed, exhausting myself and a whole gallon of developer (that's a LOT).


And, what's a weekend anymore without bee fun. Kelly got into the hive and here is a frame full of honey. Our bee (mis)adventures are chronicled at beeabout.blogspot.com.