Starting again.....

Life soon returns to normal, almost too soon, after travel, and I am back working again. This time I am not going to show you the whole piece as it progresses (sorry!) but will show some details, when appropriate.

This is to be a large piece; I prepared the silk/linen mix fabric 115cm/45" wide x 2 metres/79" length.

Using thickened dye I painted on some swipes of colour.

Then I decided to overdye the whole thing. Orange was the colour which came to mind and here I have painted over the original colours (on paper) to get some indication of an outcome.

Overdyeing worked well but then I decided that the colours were too strong for additional applications so put the whole cloth through a discharge bath. I do this often!

Ahhh, much better. All the colours have been 'knocked back' and give a better base from which to work further applications.

Nature's security works well in Peru! These cacti are planted on top of the stone wall.