GETTING THINGS READY TO HOOK MY NEXT RUG

 This post is more like a tutorial on how I go about dying wool that I have on hand. I know that seasoned teachers and rug hookers will be bored with this post but if it can help even one person who would like to try dying wool without having to use dye, it will be worth it to me. The only dye I used was green for the whole project. You can marry wool of different colors for amazing results but for this project, I use colors that are similar.

First thing, I searched the public domain for a picture for my next rug and took a photo of it and put it in a file on my computer, and printed it. I printed it in black and white because I can't get the Epson printer to print in color since it was moved but at least, I have the color photo on my phone, so no problem.

I trace the photo on a  see-through mylar sheet. I cut out a hole at the bottom of a cardboard box and tape the traced picture inside the box. I then tape a large sheet of paper on the wall to trace the image onto the sheet of paper the size I want. I have to wait until it's dark enough so the picture can be traced onto the paper. I turn on the light on my cell phone and prop it into a cup. The light is bright enough to reflect the image on the wall when the lights are dimmed. It takes a little while to set this up so it's where you want the image to be. It sounds complicated but it's not.

I tape the drawn pattern on a window during the day and then tape my backing over the pattern. I then traced the pattern onto my backing. My husband is supposed to rig up a tracing table for me and it will be so much easier on my injured shoulder to trace the pattern onto the backing as I have difficulty raising my arm. 

I covered about a handful of dry onion skin with water and boiled it for about 20 minutes. The used onion skins were drained through a fine strainer and the dye was collected in a jar. 

I use onion skins to make dye for the flesh colors. I can make different shades by controlling the amount of dye solution I use. When I have the desired shade, I remove some of the wool and leave some pieces a little longer if I need more shades. I use citric acid as a mordant to get flesh color. If you use, alum or aluminum it will turn the wool bright yellow. 

Here is the onion skin dye solution. What wasn't used has been labeled and put in the freezer for later use. 

I put natural-white wool in a little bit of Palmolive dish soap to soak overnight and added a bit of onion skin dye solution in the water then added the wool and gently simmered it until I got the desired shade and removed the wool and put it in a bowl.

This is what color was left in the pot.  At this point, I could have put some more presoaked white wool to get a lighter shade but I didn't have any left so I dumped the dye out.

I refilled the pot with clear very hot water and added 1/8 teaspoon of citric acid as a mordant in the water and stirred then dumped the hot wool in and immediately submerged the wool and stirred to get an even color.  I gently simmered the wool for about 20 minutes.

 I dumped the content in the sink until the wool was cooled enough to handle and I rinsed it well, taking care not to let the wool get a sudden change of temperature so as not to shock the wool.

This photo was taken at night in poor lighting and the color is not as it shows.

Here, I'm marrying some different shades of blue without adding any dye. I forgot to take a photo before adding the wool to the pot. I had some dark, medium, light, and very light wool of different shades and added some Palmolive dish soap to leach the colors into the water and gently simmered the wool until it was pretty well all the same shade and I removed the wool into a metal bowl and added 1/8 tsp citric acid to the water and stirred and added the hot wool back into the hot water and gently simmered for about 20 minutes and rinsed well, etc. 

This is the blue I got. It's not as bright as this. I had difficulty showing the true color for some reason.

I forgot to take a picture of the wool I used for the dark brown but this is a representation of the colors I used.

I married the assorted brown and white wool together by simmering gently.

The wool was taken out of the pot and I added 1/8 teaspoon of citric acid in the brown water and dumped the wool back in and removed it right away back into the bowl and added another 1/4 teaspoon of citric acid and put it back on a gentle simmer for 20 minutes as I wanted an uneven dark color for the hair.  I was very pleased with how well the color worked. I rinsed the wool well of course.

This is what I got for the flesh, the head covering, and the dark hair.

I used assorted pieces of yellow from other rug projects and added some white wool to the mix as I wanted a very pale yellow for the halos.

Married assorted yellow wool until an even color. The wool always looks darker when wet.

 Pale yellow wool pieces drying on a cord in my dying kitchen.  I always like to use whatever wool I have available from my stash if I can get away with it. 

A sample of the red colors I used because I forgot to take a picture before marrying it. 

This is the result of marrying all the red for Mary's dress. 

I used grey wool from a skirt and simmered it in soapy water and changed the water three times as I wanted the wool to be green somewhat, and I added some Cushing Dark Green acid dye until I got the shade I was looking for. It was night time and the lighting was bad but it turned pretty much like what I was hoping for. I found out it took a long time to bleed the dye from gray wool. I'm pleased with how it turned out. I prefer dyeing wool during the day so I can see the colors better. My eyes are not very good anymore.

This is a darker gray wool skirt that I have had for quite some time. I want to use what I have for the background and I didn't want a harsh black background.  This will do just fine.

I'm presoaking assorted light brown wool with some white for baby Jesus' garment.

I have only a few other small details to dye and I'll have all my wool ready. 

It still feels like winter as we had another snowy day today and yesterday. I'm starting to get worried about flooding this year since we are getting so much precipitation.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit and for leaving a comment. If you comment on my blog I usually reciprocate, it's only fair and I really appreciate your comments, however short. 

DOING SURGERY ON A ST FRANCIS OF ASSISI GARDEN STATUE.

 Someone from our church rescued a large St Francis of Assisi garden statue that was damaged in the rose garden by some snowmobilers who were trespassing on the church property. The weathered statue was brought inside the church lobby to protect it from further damage but its base was already damaged and it fell down, receiving further damage to the head.

Here is the statue in question.  You can see the back of the neck was very thin. The statue was propped up by a pillow against a glass table from where I did the reattachment of the head. The fingers had to be rebuilt with green body filler. 

The statue was wrapped in a blanket and given to George to see if his brother Paul would fix it, but his brother wasn't feeling well so I took the statue home to see if there was a possibility of fixing it myself. When George removed it from the car, the head fell on the cement floor where the top of the head received major damage with cracks and a hole. Luckily only the top of the head received further damage.

I went online to see how to fix a fiberglass garden statue and my husband bought a container of short fiber auto body filler and some hardener at an Auto Machinery shop.  I sanded the areas to be fixed and slowly started to mix the filler and hardener and began to repair the top of the head from the inside and shave the excess. That stuff hardens so fast, you can only do a little bit at a time. 

When attaching the head, I had to hold the head in place and the filler hardened on my paring knife. I couldn't even clean it afterward and had to throw it away.

When I finished sanding the excess green filler the best I could, I mixed the following four following colors,  off-white, black, cobblestone, and moss-green acrylic paint, and got a color that was close to the finish. My years as a ceramic teacher came in handy. When the paint dried, I sprayed the painted area with a Super matte spray and the job was done. 

My first fiberglass statue repair job... As you can see I did not clean the statue, just the parts that needed some body filler. 

I have no idea to whom this statue belongs to, but I did the best that I could. If I was to do this kind of job again, I would get myself a Dremel kit as it was difficult to smooth in the neck crevis.

That was the most satisfying thing that I did last Monday.

Thanks for your comments and I hope spring has found you.

OUR LADY OF GOOD COUNSEL, MY NEXT RUG

 Hello everyone, 4 days to official spring and we still have lots of snow on the ground but I can feel the change of season in my body.

I finished my Madonna of the Street rug and have only a little bit left to whip. I kept it to work at the Evening Matters rug hooking meeting but it was canceled.

 I signed up for a rug hook-in in St John  New Brunswick with the Carnagie Rug Hooking group in April. I can't wait to see everyone again. I had a lot of fun at the  St Andrews N.B. rug hook-in and I'm sure it will be a lot of fun again.

I drew the pattern for my next rug on the same monk's cloth backing as for my previous rug because I plan to use a #3 cut again for the face. This one is called Our Lady of Good Counsel. I haven't dyed the wool yet or even looked at what I have to work with. Lately, I've been busy with what life has given me and I work around it. 

Our Lady of Good Counsel's halo and lettering need fixing. It is a free domain picture.

I printed the photo with my computer and used a sheet of mylar and trace the outline. I taped the mylar to a hole cut in a cardboard box and used my cell phone light to project the image to the wall but it was so close to the wall that it was a challenge to trace it to the bigger piece of paper on the wall.

My brother Gerard spent the weekend with us and we had a lovely visit. He arrived with a big bottle of wine. We chatted all evening until late. We took him to our favorite family restaurant on Sunday morning but he pulled a fast one on us and paid the bill before we even blinked.

Thanks for visiting and leaving comments. I really appreciate them.

Julia