Cookie Sheet Revival

I was able to make another heart on the cookie sheet that collapsed last week. Here is the set up. By being very careful I was able to make one the biggest rust flakes into a heart shape. I raised it up from the rest of the cookie sheet by putting it on a small piece of wood. Hopefully this will create a white line around the heart. The red is from quebracho red, a South American tree that is high in tannin. I have been experimenting with it to try and get more colors into my rust dyed fabrics. I will post the results tomorrow.

Right now IT IS almost tomorrow. I have to go to bed so I can get a lot of rust dyeing done tomorrow.

No More Hearts from this Cookie Sheet

It looks like a squirrel ran across this cookie sheet and "done it in". I guess I won't be able to get any more hearts from it and no dinosaurs either, just a bunch of rust flakes.
The weather around here has not been cooperating with the Rust-Tex production schedule!!! Most of this week has been too wet to work. Tomorrow evening we are expecting a mighty storm with strong winds to blow through here. My DH wants me to REALLY batter down the hatches. I don't mind putting it away, but getting everything set up and running again takes too much of my daily energy, not leaving very much for the fun stuff.

What a Day!!!

Today was almost the perfect day for rust dyeing, cool, moist and no bugs. The only draw back was a northerly wind, usually it blows through the Rust-Tex Dye Studio from the south. The wind was too strong for me to reclaim any rust dust so the filters will remain in the house until that wind dies down a bit. The wind wasn't as strong as April 22, so it didn't prevent me from working. Not only did I rinse out six pieces of tree fabric, I did several interesting set ups today.

The best involved the very rusty cookie featured on April 23. A heart shaped piece broke out of it last time I moved it.

To make the most of a serendipitous event, I put a cotton napkin with a scalloped edge over the hole. Then I crumpled up the edges and added rust dust and tannin to get gray. This early in the season I use tea. Usually Earl Gray Tea, because it smells so good. Today I was out of Earl Gray so I used Chai. It could become my new best ingredient for rust dyeing!!! With the wonderful smells of ginger root, cinnamon, clove, allspice, nutmeg, and cardamom wafting off the set up, I might have to consider putting the set up in a cage to keeping the squirrels from nibbling on it. At the last moment I added a wire heart to the center to weight it all down.

I can hardly wait until tomorrow to see what develops!!!

That is One Rusty Cookie Sheet!!!

Today was THE perfect day for rust dyeing. It started out wet from last night's rain and ended up sunny and warm with out much wind. A couple of days ago, I had set up some scarves on a cookie sheet that was so rusty I thought it had a hole in it. To help retain the water, I put it on a big blue tray. It is a garbage can cover but I find it so useful in the Rust-Tex studio that I don't think of it's humble origins. With this wonderful set up I was expecting to get some gorgeous jasper scarves but instead I got a pale gold with just a tiny bit of veining.

the very rusty cookie sheet

the set up

the resulting color

That is what I LOVE about rust dyeing, the unpredictability of it!!!