Rust Dyed Silk

I did a felt making course a few years ago with the most inspiring and talented teacher, a textile artist called Lyn Griffiths. I was really excited to find her blog before I had started mine and found the perfect technique I was looking for to add age to fabric. I didn't want to use old and precious fabric and have frequently used tea to soften the colour of new fabric. From Lyn's blog and her fabulous dyeing experiments I had a go at using rust to add an unusual effect and I am very happy with the results.
I folded wire wool into small pieces of  damp silk, I am working on a small scale as making puppet clothes.

I left the silk for a few days in a zip lock bag until I could see rusty patterns.

This was interesting but with too much contrast and still didn't look very old so I soaked the samples in tea and got a fantastic new blue grey colour appear, some chemical reaction happened I'm sure. 

I am really delighted with the results! Now think I need to go on another of her courses and learn to dye properly and more of her fabulous techniques.