Hand Dyed Paper for Mixed Media

play..

is highly underrated

in the studio..

I think the best obsessions

begin with play..

and this one, 

started so innocently.. 

with a little

bottle of 

Turmeric..

Turmeric dye on a variety of papers, hand dyed with natural dyes.

I was interested in writing with the Turmeric dye..

and used an applicator bottle and a nib..

Turmeric dye on tracing paper, with hand dyed turmeric papers underneath.

which turned out well,

and then I experimented 

in dying the papers twice.

Tracing paper dyed twice using the first dye bath and a day later using the dye saved from the day before.

to do that,

I made the dye baths on one day.. 

The strength of the dye bath, vibrant yellow orange..

and then dyed the paper,

in this case I used tracing paper..

Tissue paper with dye bath, using a brush.

and let it dry..

while resting the bath overnight in my refrigerator...

Turmeric twice dyed on sketch paper using a brush and applicator bottle.

the next day

I used an applicator bottle to re-dye

the papers..

and I adore the way they turned out...

and then I read about 

avocado skins and pits..

the article said they 

  made a beautiful shade of pink..

so I HAD to try that right?

Assorted papers dyed with avocado skins and pits, yummy pinks!

I love the assortment of pinks..

and the more skins and pits you have

the darker the pink...

Mixed media paper hand dyed with avocado skins and pits.

you can save those skins and pits

put them in a baggie and freeze them...

to use when you want...

and 

from there I used red onion skins..

I did use the dye bath on some papers,

but the most interesting thing..

were the prints I made using the skins

which look a lot like wings on some of the prints...

Red onion dye on tracing paper.

The dye bath on the red onion skins

changed color when I used 

different papers..

which was thrilling...

Red onion skin dye bath on tracing paper.

it was greenish on the tracing paper,

Red onion skin dye bath on sketch paper

and brown on sketch paper..

above which I adore..

Red onion prints on wrapping paper.

 but I think pressing the prints was even more fun..

and I am going to play with this a bit more..

I am a little obsessed now..

they are so fast and easy and very cool..

If you have not seen my 

YouTube video

on how I created these,

just scroll down to the last post..

and ...

I am off to the studio to work

on June Journal pages

as I am woefully

behind..

Ciao, ciao!