Fabric Dyeing / Paper Flowers

This is the second lot of cotton fabric dyed with the stamens from some lilies. i gathered these as the flowers were wilting, so the stamens were a brown colour. previously i used the stamens when they were fresher & yellow (posted 26/10/2011). i used the same process, wet the fabric, wrapped the stamens in it & placed rubber bands around it. i left it to dry for a few days, unwrapped it......this photo shows how it looked at this stage before washing...... .......after washing, the yellow in the right hand corner. the colour lost a fair amount of its intensity in some places, but remained strong in other areas.

So.......what to use it for ?......as there was only a small amount i covered some bits of styrofoam with pieces of the fabric to make the centres for some paper flowers. torn book pages, paper doilies & crinkled brown paper became the petals. rusty wire for the stems.......pushed through the styrofoam & twisted at the end.....

A glue stick & some masking tape to hold the paper together.

I wanted to create a flower to compliment this metal vase that i found at a garage sale earlier in the year. also i am trying to use things that i have collected over the years, ......if i have kept them for a reasonable amount of time i must like them ......so they are coming out to be used. maybe not always in the way they were intended to be used , but given a new lease of life. like the books that never get read......i found myself reading little bits & pieces of these pages .....after i had torn them.

The flowers are a little bit different........just the way i like them. (raylee).