Who would have EVER thought that splitting wood at the farm would bring me inspiration of any kind? Well it did. My sister-in-law (Molly) and I were splitting wood yesterday and while splitting a particularly knotty red oak stump we discovered this:
Is that not BEAUTIFUL?! We were floored. I love the colors! I really think it would make a beautiful mono print screen print. Yup. So I’ll file it away for later use. I’m also planning on collecting some of the wood chips that came off of the logs that my father-in-law (Brad) chopped with the chainsaw. I’m not entirely sure I’ll actually get any color out of them, but I figure it’s worth a try. Hopefully I’ll be able to do that later this week. I forgot to get a bag and get some yesterday because of the red oak stump. We were apparently splitting mostly elm from what Brad said. It didn’t appear to have a lot of color in it except for the parts that are rotted. I may try to collect some red oak chips though. It has this gorgeous pinkish/red color. (duh) haha. Anyway, I’m excited about it. I’d really like to experiment more with natural dyes. I suppose since I actually have wool to dye now I should dig out my natural dyes of north America book…Now if I can just find some alum…
~JoAnna
I have alum! I'll trade you some wood chips for it! I have no way of getting wood for natural dying right now, lame! I love that wood btw. It's absolutely gorgeous!