Blackbottom cakes

Made yesterday, half the mixture is cocoa and flour, the other half is an egg, mascarpone cheese and choc chips... Yum! Rich but went down well x

Nebula Photos

I've finished all 6 nebulas and they start going on tour with the kids club from tomorrow. More photos on picasa:

http://picasaweb.google.com/MaresaEsmee/NebulaBlog#

Technique:

I'd start off by tye dying the sheet a base colour, such as green or blue, three hours later I lay it out flat on some plastic sheeting. Onto the spray bottles: two bottles filled with colours (silk dye, bought as a liquid) and one filled with water to blend the colours. I used an image as reference per image so I had something to work from, and once the intial pattern was 'painted' I'd work more colours on top with different intensities of dilution, or using dylon powder dye in the bottles - mixed with salt and using hot water.

The silk dyes are very intense when used 100% and leave the fabric soft to touch, whereas the dylon can be used to cover larger areas and leaves the fabric more crunchy due to the salt.

Once nearly dry (the next day) I sprayed or splattered some areas with bleach, or left to dry completely before applying a second lot of dye. Onto the ironing which would take about 45 mins per sheet to ensure the silk dye is fixed, and because the sheets are huge! I'd then lay

them out to map the sequin using dressmakers tape and sew sew sew!

I got pretty into it and would love to do more!

Nebula

First few photos of my nebula project.

These are room dividers for a kids club, made from a series of flat double bed sheets. I've used a range of techniques, silk dye, dylon, bleach and salt to get a variety of effects. They've all turned out so different.

The inspiration - Organic space - not rockets or spaceships - Nebulas, supernovas and gas storms

The outcome - liquid colours that still look as though in motion, grainy explosions and crinkly black velvet tones creeping across the sky with a shimmer of sequins and crystals.