March 2016 - Jane Mercer Felt Artist

Iron contamination

It is often importance to control the temperature of the dye bath. As I had broken my digital thermometer this week I bought a replacement . Just a simple sugar thermometer this time. I used it to keep the temperature of my onion bath at around 80 oC . This worked well . I was pleased. Then I left the thermometer standing in the pan whilst everything soaked for about 24 hours. Perhaps this was a mistake. Look at these spots . I can only think these are iron contamination. I have dyed many times with onions skins and never seen anything like this before. These are test pieces so it's not the end of the world , but it yet another reminder of the care that is needed when using natural dyes. Change nothing !! Easy to say , but really quite hard to do . On…

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20/03/2016

Wet felting

Anniversary give away

A year ago I was busy building my website and it went live on the 29th March 2015. I did not know if it was the right thing to do , but I felt it was a move I should make so I could showcase my work. I did not get someone to build it. I thought that after all my years of working with computers it could not be that difficult, in most respects I was right and I was pleased with the final outcome. But did it deliver me anything. That is an impossible question to answer. In the year I have written 42 blog posts , have had 900 visitors and 3000 views. Nothing drastic has happened , nothing has gone viral - never mind I never expected it too. The target I set myself was to grow my audience gradually over time and this is…

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13/03/2016

Eco Dyeing / jewellery / Photography / Wet felting

Frustrating week

Everything this week seems to have gone not quite right. Firstly I have finished framed and hung on the wall , nine felt pieces. These pieces originated from a felted jacket that did not fit too well. They are simply framed in wood box frames. I am very pleased with them but unfortunately I can photograph them in situ , due to reflections . Well I can but they don't look so good, Perhaps non reflective glass is the answer , but that's quite a bid deal to change them all. Here is the best I can do. So I have come up with a bit of a cheat. All individually photographed and then added here one by one. On my screen this is a square , not…

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04/03/2016