Fail, Flop and a Couple of Winners

EcoDyeing

I soaked the 100% Mexican Cotton in soy milk and iron oxide for two days.  Then I soaked the wooden dowels in iron oxide for a day.  Then I wrapped different leaves on the dowels and boiled it in iron oxide water for 2 hours.  It took another 5 hours to cool.

There were some flops, some fails, and some good pieces.

This is two separate caladium leaves.  If you look closely at the top blob you can see the bluish tint of one of the leaf outlines.  









 This is two iron plant leaves.  they are what you see under the oak trees all over the south.  Not so great. 

 This is the palm leaf.  A windmill palm.  Not so good either.  Once I ironed the piece I could just make out the outline of the fronds. 










 I have Loropetalum in my yard against my back bedroom wall.  It i purple on the new growth and a deep green on the older leaves.  Nice.

 This is a deep purple leafed crepe myrtle in Paula's yard.  I might just have to get me some.  Open the picture to see the deep outlines.

 I had about 8 sycamore leaves.  Now that worked well.  You can almost see the  leaf structure.

 This was the ice dyeing experiment. I wanted to test the mordant of soy milk and iron oxide.  It was the piece from the leaf experiments that was leftover.  I thought I would just try it to see how it dyed.

Not so wonderful, but I can overdye it later.


 Almost looks like shibori!






Here is my fail.  It was not much affected by the dye in the ice pot.  Again, it can be overdyed later.

It was an exhaustive day of watching the boiling pot and having the house heat up.  Not the best idea to do this boiling in the hottest part of the year!



I am going to add this to the list over at Nina Marie's Off the Wall Friday.  Check out what others are doing this week.

What is Healthier --- Soy Milk or Almond Milk?

I thought this was interesting.  I am not selling anything, but this is a Health Minute!  LOL>

Prevention Magazine broke it down and here are the results:

Actually it is easier if you just go to the page.  It is safe.

Click here

Hey, that is what I drink!  Good for me too!

Soy is so controversial because it plays a part in the female hormones.  Some studies have shown that it increases the estrogen based cancers.  I avoid it if I can.

I bought a three pack of the milk at Sam's cheaper than it costs for 2 at Walmart.  So I froze two of them.  It took 4 days to defrost, and I had to whip it in shape in the blender for it to go back together.  It tastes fine, and I will do it again.  But it was definitely different from freezing cow's milk.

I like the vanilla flavor but I usually get the original with no sweeteners.  Does away with any sugars since I am staying off sugars as well as wheat and soy and dairy.