I have never been a yellow person. It is just NOT my colour. If I try to wear something yellow, I look hideously ill, it’s terribly unbecoming. That was however, until I discovered Fustic.

My experience with fustic has given me astoundingly beautiful mustard tones of yellow, which deepen in shade quite quickly depending on the amount of dye used. It’s a very economical dye, a little goes a long way. It is another dye I enjoy the smell of, it’s hard to describe, but the word that springs to mind first is sticky. Which is fitting, because it does create a rather sticky goo when you first add water to it. So it has a sticky tannin smell. Maybe a bit like old dried cow dung? That sounds unpleasant and I’m sure my husband thinks it reeks horribly, but once again I do not. The smell of cows and dirt and grass and trees with a hint of woodsmoke? Maybe none, or all of those things! I shall leave that up to you to decide if you try dyeing with it.

Fustic works well on all the fibres I have tried. It gives a brighter yellow on alpaca, a bright chartreuse I would call it, and a mustard on merino.  It also gives a mustard on cotton, and like all natural dyes, changes depending on the light. Fustic has that lovely glow that all natural dyes in my experience have. Synthetic dyes just can’t beat it.

Fustic has good to excellent wash and light fastness on protein fibres, and seems to be doing well on my cotton too.

Last, but not least, when you marry fustic to indigo, you get a beautiful green offspring that is so green, even pine trees get jealous. I’ll be blogging that love story soon.

Before I began to make items for sale and had a “real” job, I had no idea the length of time it takes to create the things that we use in everyday life.  If I needed something I could just go to the shops and buy whatever I needed, and I could buy it for very little money. And I still can. But I don’t want to. I don’t want to go and buy something that has been mass produced and then sold for less than $20. I imagine many many hands have touched that item, and how can it have been produced for so little and a profit still be made? It doesnt make sense that it could have been; not without corners being cut, and somebody not receiving adequate payment for their work.

So I try to buy handmade items where I can, or items that have been produced ethically, and I particularly enjoy buying work that has been made locally.

All my work is produced slowly. I buy my supplies in as close to a raw state as I can manage. Everything I sell began it’s life in an undyed, neutral state.  It takes time for it to become the finished item that I sell. Sometimes a very long time, depending on what it is.

I kind of like that about it. Everything I make is crafted individually, or very close to individually.

It’s nice to work this way. I get to enjoy whatever I create while I create it. I shape it, and it shapes me.

I’ll slowly be adding the time it takes for an item to be made to my store descriptions. I think it’s nice to know how something was made, and be given the opportunity to be mindful of its humble beginnings.

I’ve worked on some new stuff recently which I haven’t shown off yet blog wise! I’ve done a short run of Linen cushion covers which you can grab in the shop, and I also made some one of a kind patchwork scarves using merino.

I’ve been doing a lot of admin behind the scenes and have recently picked up not one but four new stockist! How cool is that?? I think it’s pretty cool. In Melbourne you can find me at Hut13 on Swan St in Richmond. It’s pretty close to the Corner hotel. Then you can find me at Nook in West End (Brisbane QLD) and at Mr Sparrow in Subiaco (Perth WA). Lastly you can find me online at Hunt & Bow.

I feel pretty lucky to be picked up by such great stores!

In other news I have some cool stuff I want to work on over the xmas. I’m going to finally get a fermentation vat going, and a 123 vat as well. Then I have a number of new techniques to try out, so I’ll no doubt have some great photos to share of those too. I’ve recently been admiring the work of Hiroyuki Shindo, which I highly recommend taking a look at. Truly awe inspiring beautiful stuff. Something to aim for!

This weekend I will be at Bend and Snap Market at 1000 £ Bend on Sunday. I’ve got some new goodies in the shape of merino gloves to unveil, dyed with Indigo, Madder and Cochineal. They’re pretty spesh, and super warm.

I’ll also have a few merino scarves dyed with Madder and Cochineal as well as a bunch of yarn of differing bases, as well as my Indigo. Busy busy! I’ve got the yarn mordanting on the stove as I write this post in fact!

If you’ve been nosing around the shop lately you’ll see that I have a few silk scarves on sale. These will be available at the sale prices at the market, as well as a few others that haven’t been listed in the shop yet, and some eco prints. Ooh! And I also have some home wares that are yet to make a website appearance! Gees I really should get cracking and put all this stuff in the shop!

I also did a little interview a few months back with the organisers of Bend and Snap. Click here to have a read of it. 

The second thing I am loving about this market is the venue. It’s at one of my all time favourite venues the Northcote Social Club! Which as most people would know is an awesome band venue. I have seen many many awesome bands there, and have also enjoyed many (not toooooo many) beverages there too.

I’ll be bringing along my Indigo and my Eco and perhaps some other things too. I am also thinking of bringing a mini vat with me, so if you want to ogle a vat, then please come on down and have a chat with me. I’m always happy to talk about vats with people.

Here’s another little eco teaser for everyone. This beauty has been sold, but I’ll get another ready before Saturday!

I started out trying to do some eco printing on silk with eucalyptus. I steamed my bundled leaves and then after an hour happily unravelled them to find…not much. I got some very pale yellow leaf prints, not the glorious reds and pale greens I was expecting.

So I did some overdyeing. My favorite has been overdyed with logwood (above) and has an iron mordant (improving the lightfastness of the logwood as an added bonus). It’s very earthy and rustic.

Then I overdyed some others with purple carrot (above) and also red cabbage (not shown). Interesting results! I created twist resists on these to preserve the original colour so there would be some patterning. I quite like these too, they are pale but also quite pretty.

I also solar dyed 2 scarves (below, shown together), one with a mix of berries and a bit of callistemon, and the other just with calistemon. The darker one is the berries. I actually prefer the paler on in this instance, the callistemon gave a nice earthy dusky pink.

Yesterday I decided to try my hand at eco printing again, being a long weekend I had a little more “me” time. (Thanks husband!!)

Well, yesterday’s efforts paid off, I got some stunning results!

These will all be up for sale at the Rose St Market this coming Sunday!! I’ve also just bundled up some of the Merino so fingers crossed it does as i intend. If so, it will also be available on Sunday.  If you see anything you like and wish to purchase, drop me an email! vic@bindandfold.com

PS, I’ll take some snazzier photos when the weather improves. It’s been yucky and grey all day! Just when I need some sunshine for my camera, poo poo.

This past weekend I had a stall at Craft Hatch, which was pretty amazing, I met some wonderful designers as well as some of the Craft (Victoria) people which was really great.

2 designers I would love to share from Craft Hatch are Shiko and Mara Kapsis. Shiko creates beautiful hand thrown pottery (I picked up a tea cup, and it is divine) and Mara Kapsis creates gorgeous hand screen printed home wares and gift wrapping. If you take a peek on her website though, she has also done some work with natural dyes, which I absolutely would have quizzed her on had I realised!

I did launch my new 100% NZ Merino range of scarves at Craft Hatch, which were received rather well, (yay!) and I have also now begun listing them on the website and etsy. I will have more colours listed by the end of today. These scarves are generously sized at approx. 50cm x 165cm, They’re a really great width and length, yet each scarf weighs approx 150g, making them super lightweight! Merino is really a fantastic fibre to work with, its light yet warm, it wicks moisture, its super soft and is just all round amazing.  They are also perfect for both men and women, they’re all round just great.

Coming up on June 16 I will be at Rose St market in Fitzroy, along with some other fabulous stalls. Rose St market also has a cafe and has a really cruisey vibe. I saw some great work last time I visited, I was really blown away by the talent displayed there! After tackling my first ever market, I’m looking forward to doing another so quickly.

Lastly, on the 30th of June I will be at 1000 Pound Bend once again for Bend and Snap! Bend and Snap has some really cool stalls at it, and they always have little craft projects going on that everyone can take part in, so if you want to get your craft on, then it’s a great market to visit.

I’ve been working on some new stuff for the market, which I will hopefully have ready in time! If you’re in Melbourne, please come down and say hi! It will be my first market ever, so some friendly faces will put me at ease :)

One of my new scarves. You can find this one up for sale here.
I’ve been working a lot with the Indigo lately, so expect more blue from me! More indigo news in my next blog post.

It looks like it’s meant to be a painting, doesn’t it?

But, it is art to wear in the form of an infinity scarf. Coming soon to the shop :) On etsy here!