Rainbows

[offcntr]

Things are kinda monochrome in the studio at the moment, shades of grey and, well, grey. So I thought I'd go outside for a bit, enjoy the brief patch of sun between showers, and show off one of Denise's obsessions.

Irises.

The first set of irises we had were pale purple, brought from our old duplex on Eighth place and planted around the fence and studio door. They still soldier on valiantly, blooming super early. (They're already mostly gone.) Then we salvaged some two-tone purple rhizomes from a garden clean-up at Club Mud, and planted them along the sidewalk.

Where they took over. We've got about ten yards of them now, flowering vigorously, indifferent to weather, crowding, fertilization or lack thereof. They're really bullet-proof, and, honestly? Kinda invasive. I know now why Linda pulled them out at Club Mud. But they make a nice visual barrier for our otherwise wide open front yard.

After that, I started buy Denise roots at the Farmer's Market. A lovely peach, which did not survive. A yellow, that may have? Or these may be from a gift from another vendor. And a black that changed everything.

This being Oregon, we'll frequently find a bud, just on the verge of opening, neatly clipped off by slugs or snails. We usually bring it in, trim the stem, and put it in a bud vase, of which we have several. This particular vase was porcelain, with a crackle glaze. As the bud went to opening to open to wilting down, the juices seeped into the crackle and stained it a super dark blue. Always on the lookout for natural dyestuffs, Denise popped the liquefying blossom into a jar of mordanted (treated with chemicals to help bind colors) paper pulp, and, sure enough, got some lovely sky blue paper as a result.

She has tried every color of iris we have, since then. Most give some shade of green or goldy-brown, and only one particular strain of black iris gives the sky blue. We went up to Schreiners Iris Gardens last May to see the sights, and brought home four or five new varieties, all blooming right now. We'll see what they do in the vat.

Comments

[james]

Those are gorgeous! I love the black one. There are purple irises growing right next to where I park my car, and one is kind of leaning over and I have to nudge it to get past to my driver's side door. I need to prop it up somehow.

[offcntr]

Yeah, they don't root very deep, do they? Add the big blossom on a long stem, plus spring rain or winds, and they're all over the place. One of the two-tones is growing out horizontally over the sidewalk, with a blossom facing down, so the flags and falls are all pointing the same direction.

[chefxh]

I've been meaning to ask you something. I just opened 2 mailers with 6 Kaiser prescription vials and 6 sheets of white paper. Is it wirth saving paper for Denise? If so, what kinds?

[offcntr]

Honestly, no. We've got years of shredded colored office stock from Saturday Market newsletters still unpulped, and for white, she's stockpiled Braille paper from her transcription days. It's 100% cotton, and ink-free, so perfect for mordanting and dying with natural colors.

She's also doing a lot more with colored t-shirt pulps, since she bought in on Julia Garretson's Hollander Beater, so using less recycled paper pulp.

You might better put them in your computer printer tray and use 'em up that way. Thanks, though.