3 silkies from Natibaby: Swans, Elves and Dandelions

These recent releases by Polish Natibaby have created some stir in the babywearing world, and no wonder: they`re beautiful, sophisticated and sturdy.
And because of silk content, absolutely fabulous to dye!

I was lucky to be able to experiment on all three of them-firstly, the swans, dyed with Red Cherry acid dye from Jacquard. It went to live in sunny Spain with one pretty mama, and it looked like this...




Next were my very own Dandelions which again I dyed with acid dye for silk-this time a mixture of Silver Grey and Jet Black to create some sort of grapphite grey:




And the last, but not least, the beautiful Elves sent by one UK mama who wanted them spiced up a little from their natural beige and white appearance. For this I used both procion and acid dyes to create a two colour effect:

GD: Moss (55% linen) Adobe

This is another of August creations-a gradation on a linen Moss that was sitting in my wrap cupboard, waiting for some spare time. I had some on one day, so took the opportunity to dye it.
I chose warm orangey shade against pewter grey, which belongs to warmer greys, as opposite to charcoal. I thought of those handmade, naturally sourced bricks still being manufactured and used in many parts of the world, about their earthy tones and spirit of sustainity. Also, those colours seemed perfect for the coming Fall...
The Mossy now is (hopefully) living with one mama across the big pond, and here are some pictures:

GD: Exotic Flowers and Burgundy hemp indios

This time two Indios with hemp, for one lovely lady from Spain.
First goes Exotic Flowers, for which one of my previous grads was an inspiration (Monsoon Flowers). That one was done on a silk Indio however, therefore overall effect was a bit different.
Nevertheless, colours worked fine for hempy too:




Then goes a Burgundy hempyt, which initially was to be a solid colour dyed, then a one colour grad, then two shades of one colour, and ended up as a three colour gradation (with three shades of -more or less-one colour).
I hope it will grow on the owner after such perturbances:)

More Nebbia Fische-Aquamarine and Sapphire

Two other fishy wraps have been dyed, one for Jacki and one for Jeanette.
Both requests were for blue, and I managed to aquire two different results: lighter blue with slightly greenish tint (the Aquamarine):




and a darker one, the Sapphire:




I must say those wraps turned out quite difficult to dye blue-for the Sapphire, I had to add a fair amount of Jet Black to make sure the original limey green won`t affect the colour shade, as it did in case of Aquamarine.
However both look lovely and I hope their owners will like them too.

LWI: Sumatra Jade (an experiment)

There was a time in August, just a tiny bit if space in continuum, where, while waiting for some wraps to arrive, and having finished previous orders, I decided to try my hands on something new. Something that I had vague knowledge about only (just some technical details, that`s all), but I felt I could experiment with my own way of doing it, since this technique had always seemed so forgiving yet so creative!
So here`s my first Low Water Immersion adventure result, commited on a size 4 stripped Jade Spring that had been laying in the depth of my wardrobe.
It came out quite interesting! And is now in a new home, hopefully bringing some joy:)





I must say I found it refreshing, to try this new to me technique. Although I think it`s a far cry from what the true queen of LWI, Alisa does:)

GD: Zara She Samoa

Yet another August update...and I hope Keila won`t mind the name:)
When I`m asked to dye a wrap with blues and yellows, I can`t help but drift away to some remote tropical islands-if only in my day-dreaming!
And such colours on a silky Zara always work fantastic, what with the shimmer and subtle shade shifting by the pattern...

So here`s a very uplifiting wrap for a beautiful lady and her sweet wrappee:

GD: Pamir Dingle

Another August update...

Dingle is a town situated on Dingle Peninsula in County Kerry, Ireland. It is a place dear to one mama`s heart, so that`s what she called this gradation. Aptly, I say, looking at the pictures of this part of Irish Atlantic coast...

I know it will be visiting its namesake region quite very often! And who knows Natalia, maybe one day you`ll meet this gentleman on one of your country walks and explain to him the wonderful benefits of using a sling with little Dingle:)

And here`s what the shorty Pamir looks now...

Pesci Nebbia not so foggy anymore:)

I have a lot to update here, but of course no time when I need it...I`ll try however to do my best to show some of the recent dye jobs, and will start with the newest fishy wrap by Didymos.


This is Pesci Nebbia, the first ever woven (by Didymos) with the use of naturally dyed linen fibre. The effect is light yellow on the verge of delicate lime green. That is surely very pretty, unfortunately, in its` lightness, too tempting to experiment with colours:) It felt a bit strange to overdye the first naturally dyed wrap, but then I decided this shade of yellow was not complimenting my skin tone very much:)

So I mixed some reds (with main colours being Burgundy, Fire Engine Red and jet Black) and a stunningly shimmery Stendhalesque fishies emerged:



I love how the colours peeks through in between the black threads, which of course remain black during the dye process! I named it Nebbia Hoernum for obvious copycat reasons;)

Then I got itchy fingers and knew I wanted to try another colour. I had to buy another wrap; luckily my friend fell in love with Nebbia Hoernum and off to live with her it went.
New arrivals then took a bath in a mixture of Aqua, TUrquoise, Cayman Isle green and Jade green (which in reality is bright teal). I must have overdone it with greens though, as it came a bit too green for my taste...Nebbia Lagoon:


So I`ll probably redip it in some more turquoisy shades. But not very soon, as there are 3 other shoals of Nebbia fishies waiting in their boxes to be dyed before they can go to their homes:)

GD: Water Rose natty linen Indio

A lovely Canadian mama sent me her beloved natty linen Indio hoping for some pleasant transformation. She wanted it pink, but subtle pink, and green, of the salvia/sage/mint of sorts kind. Nothing loud in general:)
The pink part was easy, as there`s always Baby Pink at hand that can replace (usually demanded) Fuchsia or Hot Pink.
With the green however I had to mix some dyes to obtain the satisfying shade. I used Yucca green as a base, and then added various other dyes until it looked right.
Now the wrap is on the way back home, and the name has been given by the owner who said it looked like roses floating in water. And it does!
I really hope it`ll be as much loved as it was in its` natty state.

GD: Morroccan (Ecru) Pfau

This linen bird flew over from Spain back in July for transformation; the owner sent me some inspiration pictures via email as well, specifying that she would love a colour set that would remind her the country of Morrocco that her family loves very much. It was really exciting for me, as I always like those "artistic freedom" projects:) There is always risk that the end result won`t be exactly what the mama wanted/imagined, but that happens extremely rarely (thank all gods!).
On this occassion the colour choice I`ve made, based on the pictures Nieves had sent, has been accepted and the Morroccan Pfau is already at home, hopefully bringing up memories of desert sands and camels roaming them, green mint tea leaves and delicious meals being cooked in traditional tagine dishes in all colours.

GD: Kalypso Silk Waves

This time of year my thoughts escape to the Greek islands in every possible moment-maybe because it`s been three years since I last went there!
So when ever patient and lovely Jen asked me to dye her stripped silk Waves wrap-requesting one colour (pink) somewhere, the rest of colours leaving with me-I thought it could be inspired by the shades of early morning on a Greek island. You know the gist-the sea is still dark grey, gently swaying in the remains of the night, while sky above becomes subtly lit by rising sun, eventually bursting in purples, pinks and fabulous pale blues. How I wish I could board the plane now!
But I can`t.
So instead Jen`s getting the company of mysterious nymph Kalypso that held Odysseus hostage for seven years:)
I think she likes how the Waves have turned out-and I can tell her that this gradation is full of positive, dreamy vibe!:)

GD: Arwen Pamir

I couldn`t think of a different name for this gradation since I saw the inspiration picture for it -and was told the colours the mama who sent the wrap over wanted.
She looked so beautiful on this picture, that I immediately thought about Mr Tolkien`s fantastic realms and their glorious inhabitants.
And we all know who Arwen was there...
So, having in mind lovely Abigail`s colours request and the picture of her on her wedding day, I dipped Mr P in a bath of peachy pink, rose pink and some aqua green/blue.
The colours were supposed to be lightest possible , with only the rails more accentuated.
It`s on the way home now and I hope Abigail will find it as nice as it was for me to create it...

GD: Smokey Sunset (Leo diamonds)

Diamonds are not my favoured weave. They`re beautiful, of course, that goes without saying. But somehow they are strangely resistant to easy grad-dyeing, at least to me-so I sighed a little when this very patient mama sent me a natty Leo to be transformed into a sunset gradation.
I knew my nemesis wouldn`t let me rest, and indeed I spent some longer than usual time working on this particular grad. And I need to thank Elizabeth for her enormous patience-not only did I have to wait for some supplies to arrive to finish the job, but also my little personal sunshine decided that middle of the summer season was the best time in year to catch a (quite heavy) cold.
However, the diamonds finally gave in, and here`s the result...

GD: Ionian Sea hemp indio

This hempy was initially supposed to have a tiny strip of light pink along one rail, but it was rather impossible to keep it pinky-pink with the tide of blues that were following. So the very lovely mama decided to have it all blue.
But blue in three variations: turquoise, teal/caribbean and navy blue.
After much struggling with stubborn turquoise that would keep coming out too pale, I`ve managed to create a real Ionian Sea for Mari (who chose the name herself, and right so, as the Ionian Sea I remember from my travels does have such shades!)

Another request was to have the tapers covered completely in navy so there is no gradation showing on them.
Hempy is in its` home now and will hopefully be loved!

GD: Purple Haze Violet Pfau

The name has been previously partly used by Alisa of Color Dip Studios, but I couldn`t think of a better one for this lovely mama`s transformed Pfau!
Originally a Violet one, it screamed for some colour as she said, so upon arrival it plunged straight into a bucketful of strong violet and then a mixture of dark purples with the Imperial and Eggplant prevailing.
I decided to leave one rail untouched for a few centimetres, to underline the contrast with the other rail, and for obvious visual effect. The mama accepted it and this is how hazed the birds have become!:)