With the Northern Lights popping up again last night, I thought I'd repost this adventure from last year. I drew this when the great @nepeteaa wondered what night-migrating songbirds might make of it all.
the real danger of spending too much time with friends is you stumble out of ten days of happiness and good food like oh my god THAT was real life. my job means NOTHING
They donât actually give you an encyclopedic knowledge of something when you get in a degree in it. They give you the skill to learn more about it on your own.
I donât actually know about every book ever written and what critics say about it but I sure do know how to find out. And thatâs what you pay for when you get an English degree.
They teach doctors how to find and read scientific studies and whatnot. They donât just pop out of medical school fully formed and knowing everything forever. Thatâs why they make them renew their medical licenses. To make sure theyâre up to date.
If youâre wondering what the use of college is thatâs basically it. You learn how to learn more about one particular thing and/or how to make connections in the industry itâs part of. The GE classes also hopefully turn you into a more well educated citizen that knows how some basic things not related to your field of study work.
the bartender asks if i want the usual and i make a joke and say i want the unusual if they have it in the back and he giggles and walks through the door i havent seen until that point and comes back carrying a handful of wet colorful river shallow rocks and puts them on the bartop and we both look at them for hours until they dry and go dull and then we pour a little water over them again and look on
i loosely followed thedimelionsâs tutorial for naturally dyeing a pride flag, with a lot of added research about natural dyes, stains, mordants, sewing, etc, and i wanted to share my results!!
process, notes, and more pics under the read moređ±
starting off i soaked my fabric (100% cotton acquired from joann's during their closing sale, rip joann's ;-;) in a 1:5 mixture of soy milk and water for 12 hours, then let dry on a clothesline in the sun, then dipped and dried two more times (the proteins in the soy milk help the natural dyes adhere to the fabric, creating darker colors and better colorfastness)
while that was happening i started making my dyes, which involved simmering my chosen dyestuffs in some water for 30-60 minutes. i didnt time it, just went until the color developed to a point i was happy with
as far as ratios i didnât measure, but the more dyestuff = stronger color so err on the side of more
red: turmeric + baking soda, paprika, and yellow onion skin dye as the liquid base
orange: yellow onion skins
yellow: turmeric
green: red cabbage + baking powder (LOTS), turmeric
blue: red cabbage + baking powder
purple: red cabbage
for the red cabbage dyes, i added the baking powders and soda after simmering and just kept adding and stirring till i got the color i wanted. ((BIG NOTE red cabbage, and debatably most of the others that I used, are fugitive dyes, meaning its not a true dye and more of a stain that will fade with time and wash out more easily, especially without mordanting on additives like iron. keep this in mind if you end up doing this project or transfering these methods to cloth you will be using for clothes, ie washing and wearing more frequently))
i also tried to make a pink with avocado skins and pits, which did come out a lovely rosy color, but i didnât end up using in the final flag, which i might use beet or red cabbage + lemon juice or another acidified for next time to get a more bright pink
now with my dyes ready and my cloth dried out from its previous soy milk dip i cut it into strips and stuck it in the jars, which were placed in the sun for the day (alternatively, you could simmer the cloth in the pot) and then left to sit overnight
the next day i squeezed out the excess dye and gave the ones with turmeric a light rinse to get the grit out, then hung them to dry
((small note i reused the dyes baths to see what would happen since they still looked just as pigmented, but the colors are much much much more faded on the second go around. all in all its doable, but I wouldn't recommend it.))
now time to sew! i procured a second hand sewing machine specifically for this project and had never sewed before, but thankfully this required the easiest stitch in the game (a straight stitch in a straight line). i looked up how to sew a flag specifically to get those clean lines rather than just overlapping, and this video was great (shoutout Suffolk Public Library)
as you can see my flag ended up quite long cause I left a lot of wiggle room, so I just look up flag ratios, trimmed it up (and used the extra strip of rainbow as decoration) then added a white strip folded over to make a way for me to hang it on a stick if I ever so desire.
and ta daaa! i would still like to clean it up a bit, and do a zig zag stitch around the outside to stop the cloth from fraying further, but im happy with the unpolished look of it. once i figure out how to get a pink I like, and how to get browns and blacks, i want to make a progress flag and trans flag. also just started growing some indigo, so excited to see if I can get some blue dyes out of that.
One of my favorite stories to tell about myself from when I was a kid is the story how my grandmaâs âCatching Fairiesâ game was banned because of me
So when I was really little my grandma had this game she made up, sheâd give me and all my cousins jars and containers and tell us that in her garden there were fairies but they were smart and tricky so they disguised themselves as caterpillars and butterflies and as grasshoppers and worms.
Whoever caught the most âFairiesâ won but we had to set them all free because they tended to the garden
One summer day my brothers were at the age they were dreading âgirlyâ stuff so I was playing alone
At this point I had met all the fairies in the garden and I was getting bored without any competition and with finding the same old fairies
But then just as I was begrudgingly heading back to my grandma with the same fairies as usual I found a new fairy!
I thought she was so beautiful! She was resting on the sparkly thread in the leaves and her black body gleamed in the sunlight, she had long legs and a cool red spot on her back
Excited I coaxed her onto my hand and was so giddy I found a new one! I rushed back to the farm house to show my Grandma and Dad, gently carrying my new friend.
But when my Dad and Grandma turned around to see what fairy I caught I saw the color drain from their faces and both of them freeze, I could tell something was wrong but didnât understand
My dad congratulated me and asked me if he could see the pretty fairy, I let him but felt a little nervous seeing how terrified he looked as she moved into his hands from mine.
Slowly he walked back towards the door, my grandma clutching my shoulders then my dad LAUNCHED the fairy back into the garden which I thought was rather rude
Then we had a nice long talk about Black Widow spiders
discoholicmusic
origamiaround
kianamaiart
vaporwave
turnnoffyourmind
jacobvanloon
