Hooray for Buttercup!

Sorry this post is a day late. I've been bravely battling a cold since Saturday night and finally I can breathe properly out of my nose. Anyways, the recent weather and a lovely picture has inspired me to do some research on yellow.

photo taken by Sandra Juto

Is that shade of yellow a buttercream, buttermilk, or buttercup? I'm leaning more towards buttercup and I adore it. It's not a garish rubber duck yellow but a soft, muted sunshine yellow which makes me think of summer naps and cold lemonade.

Wikipedia has a very detailed article about yellow, but I felt a bit disappointed after reading it. There didn't seem to be much talk of its history and how people were able to get the pigments and dyes they wanted. And that's when my research started to stray and fall off topic. I couldn't find much specifically about yellow, or at least the info that I wanted to know. Thus dyeing methods and materials became my focus. I found this great post on how to dye clothes naturally, not something that I've been thinking about but definitely something fun to try. As with all dyes, it is better to use natural fibers as synthetic ones cannot soak up the dye evenly. So grab a cotton t-shirt rather than a polyester/rayon one to experiment with.

palette: light grey, electric indigo, buttercup, opera mauve

More browsing led me to book searches and this little gem. My colour theory lessons at the university were very limited...I think we spent one week making our own colour wheels...CRIMINAL, I know! Color: A Natural History of the Palette sounds right up my alley with all of the history, research, and cultural background that goes along with pigments and their sources. I'm sure I'll end up a blabbing pot of knowledge after I read this book...my poor friends will have to endure the random facts of pigments and dyes, or maybe I'll just post all about it here. :)

photo from Gardenista

Another great book I found is all about mushrooms and how wonderful they are for colouring fibers. It's written by Miriam C. Rice who is credited for "mushroom dyeing". Rice tossed a few mushrooms ( Naematoloma fasciculare) into a dye pot with wool yarn and ended up with bright yellow yarn. Both books are on my wishlist, although I'm not too sure where I will find mushrooms in the city. I guess I'll save mushrooms hunts for the weekends when I visit my family in North Georgia.

Oh and if you love colour and want to see more of the yellow, I added a few pics to my flickr favs.

Have a great week!

Celebration of Mauve

Today I wanted to try something different, something a bit more focused. This entry, as well as the ones to follow will focus on visual inspiration though colour along with a little history on the mentioned hue.

While browsing tumblr, I found a few Marie Antoinette pics with Kirsten Dunst in this gorgeous mauve dress. And so began my hours of research on the colour mauve.

Now her dress is more of an opera mauve (rgb 183, 132, 167), which was first recorded in the English language in 1927. Oh but there is so much more to this colour. The colour itself was first discovered in 1856 by William Perkins, a scientist who was analyzing quinine (an anti-malarial substance) and later noticed a purple residue in one of the tubes. This residue, containing ailine, was refined, patented, and named mauveine before Perkins was 18 years old. It was one of the first synthetic dyes, as most fabrics at the time were still being dyed with natural substances.

Tyrian purple, the purple dye before mauveine, was very expensive to produce because it was made from the glandular mucus of sea snails, thus most royalty wore it. It was a deeper purple and sometimes referred to as imperial purple or royal purple.

The popularity of Perkin's discovery and it's affordability resulted in Britain's "Mauve Decade" during the 1890's. Queen Victoria wore the colour as well as Eugenie de Montijo (wife of Napoleon III), thus creating more hype for the hue. I'm not sure if Marie Antoinette ever wore it since it came well after her time. I guess I should do more research about that.

So what happened to the ever-so popular mauve? Well, like most things that spark a trend, the colour became overused and people grew tired of it. Also, William Perkins proved that there was a market for synthetic dyes and more people began to experiment; therefore more colours were created and made available to the masses.

And with that I give you some visual stimuli. Here are some flickr favs with mauve.

1. Mauve Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting, 2. une couleur:mauve, 3. mauve handmade fabric rose, 4. doesn't anybody love me?

Friday Favorite

My favorite this Friday comes from a very personal place. As Emma said on Tuesday, our family is going through a very difficult time. One of my crafting idols, our grandmother, is losing her battle with cancer. Our grandmother is TRULY one of the most amazing crafters I have ever seen. Her skills range from sewing and crocheting to painting and wood carving, and seriously, those are JUST a few.

In honor of her and her amazing life, my sisters and I decided to create corsages from the fabric scraps that were hers. Since purple is her favorite color, I chose purple fabrics and made fabric yo yos. I adore yo yos. Not only are they absolutely precious and versatile, but they are full of history. Yo yo quilts have been around for a very long time, in fact my grandmother has one that belonged to her mother.

For those of you who don't know how to make a yo yo, they are extremely do-able. Check out Miss Bees Designs for an excellent tutorial on how to make a fabric yo yo.

I placed a button in the center of my yo yos and attached a pin back with hot glue. You could totally go crazy with these things, layering the yo yos making a sort of flower, adding feathers or tulle. Have fun with it. After all, that is what life truly is about. We love you, grandma.

Dreary Tuesday

Now I'm a summer girl all the way, but sometimes I enjoy a foggy afternoon. Buildings and cars being blurred out and unfinished make me think of an expansive world I will never see the end of. Plus, the chill keeps me inside and focused. It's just after lunch and I've already filed my taxes and now I'm writing this blog, wahoo!

I don't want to go into too much detail or depress anyone, but my family is going through a difficult time right now. Sometimes it's hard to stay positive but I truly believe moments like these help you to know and feel your own strength. They give you confidence so the next time the world seems to be falling apart, you KNOW you can handle it. Another thing that helps me is watching inspiring movies. No I'm not talking about Rudy...I lean more towards the documentary type. Here are a few I've been thinking about recently.

Waking Life-This is not for everyone, in regards to plot and visuals. The power of the human mind never ceases to amaze me, even when it creates a negative reality. The fact that it can even do that astonishes me.

Babies-Another movie that isn't for everyone. The movie can be slow at some points due to lack of dialogue and babies crying for too long; but it is super interesting to see the differences and similarities of these children. Here's a little interview with the director, Thomas Balmes.

Between the Folds-Documentary about Origami and the people who love it. It may sound boring but I loved the different attitudes these artists/engineers have about paper.

Visually inspiring movies help out too. These are a few of my favourites!

Have a wonderful week!

Friday Finds

For those of you who don't know, I am borderline obsessed with reusing and re-purposing materials. In fact my office/craft room is full of things that "I know would make an awesome ____, but I am just not sure what ____ is yet" Drives my husband crazy.

Anyway, my find this week is something I hope will help give all of my misfits and fabric scraps a purpose. One can dream. The site is craftingagreenworld and it is FULL of ideas for crafters like me. Ironically, the banners and buntings on the home page have been swimming around in my brain for months now, but I have yet to bring them to fruition.

So I have NO excuses. Well, at least the one I use about not having any inspiration is no longer valid. Fabric scraps here I come.

Second only to the above mentioned obsession, is my addiction to spray paint. Nooooo, not sniffing it, the use of it to transform the hideous into a work of genius! I know, I know its fumey and not very "green". SHHHHH its my dirty little secret. So you can only imagine how thrilled I got when I discovered the all natural graffiti made from moss on the website. While I may not be able to paint a chandelier with it, I sure as heck can tag something! Plus, moss, beer and a blender?! Making the "paint" might be just as fun! Oh did I mention, you put moss and beer in a blender? Yep. I am stoked. First item up for tagging, a cement block with my house numbers on it. So does that mean I will have the greenest house on the block? Well at least the greenest house numbers.

Tuesday Treats

I meant to post this earlier, but I went over to a friend's house right after work. She needed help painting a room in her house, and I'm definitely an eager painter. Sometimes I even get a little messy because I'm so excited.

Anyway, here are a few things I've seen this week that caught my eye; and yes most of it is from etsy. :)

Gorgeous pillow: I would love to have two of these on my couch.

Sweet squirrel clutch: The entire series is to die for, but I'm a huge fan of copper.

Owl necklace: Not copper, but still really cute. It doesn't look like your typical owl necklace.

Copper cuff: Beautiful! I love the organic, yet clean design.

Copper heater: I never knew something like this existed! I would probably add flowers to the middle, or a small terrarium.

Mignon typewriter: I really hope that one day I will find one of these at a flea market, yeah I know it's highly unlikely.

Simple Times: My friend San directed me to these youtube videos of Ms. Sedaris. I purchased this book recently and read through it, excitedly, in one night. I've flipped through it again and again, as well as Amy Sedaris' first book, I Like You. She is so funny and fantastic! Strangers with Candy is still one of my favourite shows.

Mushrooms!! Kaylah aka The Dainty Squid has a gorgeous set of mushroom photos on her flickr. I love the yellow and orange hues, which is somewhat of a recent development.

P.S. Above illustration is by Alessandro Barbucci, one of the artists of SkyDoll.

Projects

I'm in Atlanta right now and this snow is crazy! I don't think I'll be going to work today, as the road in front of my apartment complex is completely iced over. However, the boyfriend is working today, from home, so I won't have the computer for the next 8 hours.

I wanted to take some time to talk about some projects we are working on. Currently, I'm waiting for some clay to rehydrate so I can make more button coasters. I'm going to try out a new glazing design and some new colours. But...we still have 3 sets for sell in the etsy shop! The salmon pink set seems to be the most viewed. I'm not a pink girl but I have to admit, I do love these colours.

I also wanted to show these....mugs I made for my friends for Christmas. They are based off of Xeno Lovegood's mugs from the new HP movie. I used a licorice glaze and a bright blue glaze. I love love love the way these mugs feel, really unique. We will be taking pre-orders next week and we will definitely have them for sale at our next craft show.

Speaking of which, we've got some more ideas brewing for 2011. Nothing has been nailed down, but there is talk of pillows, wedding toppers, aprons for big girls, lamp bases, just really unique items for the home. We are super excited about this new year, what it will bring, and the people we will connect with.

Well, I gotta get some breakfast and start working on projects. Have a spectacular day and stay warm!