I am sure I am not alone in this timelessness…no idea what day or date it is and the days seems to swirl by as weeks disappear into months. My idea to do a weekly blog post doesn’t seem to be reachable at the moment as other things take over. That really isn’t a big deal as I set that goal, and goals can be stretched and changed. After more than a year of lockdown, there are some really challenging issues that seems to come in waves of mental torture. Nature is my usual escape route, thankfully spring is springing which gives lots to marvel at. I find it difficult to settle to my creative pursuits. New goodies to play with helps though. I have some luscious silk tops and merino wool which I may incorporate into my textile works. I would like to try felting and use them in that, but that’s for another time… I found a UK supplier for silk fabrics and dyes instead of one in the US and I am happy with the quality. As all my stash of silk supplies are still in my little rented house in Morocco and no idea when I can travel back to pack up my stuff, I bought some more dyes. I adore silk, and making scarves, so why not. I kept it to a few reds, blues, yellows plus a few others. It’s more fun mixing up my own colours. Its always helpful to make a colour chart with things like dyes, just to have a clear idea of what you have and then it’s easy to pick colours for mixing. I found some unused pieces of oak from the base of a single bed which I made into a metre square frame and wrapped cling film around a postal tube to use for my pole wrapped scarves. Invention and repurposing is a fun necessity these days when no shops are open.
Mulberry Silk tops 
Merino wool
Silk 
Silk 
Merino wool
I use steam fixable dyes and a pressure cooker which takes two scarves as a time. It is worth using top quality dyes for the vibrancy and gorgeousness. So I shall wait and see how these pretties dry and then decide what to use them with.
These are just random dyed pieces with salt scattered to move the colours which I cut up and use in my textile pieces. Some are wet on wet and some wet on dry and then sprayed with water.
My mixed media pieces are almost completed, just waiting for some spray varnish to arrive as applying it with a brush disturbs the inks. I think the Woodland ones would look really well in a deep white floating box frame under glass.
Woodland 
Fissure 
Next time I will do a post about pole wrapping silk scarves! it’s a wonderful unpredictable fab way of creating unique pieces steeped in Japanese techniques.
As always…post in the comments! thanks
Karima Rebecca Powell Artist 