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I may be wrong here but think this is a Carolina Locust. There were a lot of these in the field where we went today to take care of some chickens for a friend of my husband's. They are the least destructive of the locusts.
This is a Ebony Jewelwing Damselfly. It has been skittering around out front and I finally got a good enough photo to identify it.
Here are the ladies whose eggs we swiped right out from under them.
I did some more ice resist dyeing yesterday and completed another two shirts and four yards of fabric. This is 1/2 of a piece of Egyptian cotton -- I did a two yard length and folded it into quarters before scrunching it and putting on the ice and dye. When you open it up, you have a mandala. The dye goes through the four layers quite evenly so may try more layers to see if I can get something even more interesting.
This is the other two yard piece which was a sateen. The dyes I used were Pro Chem's Grape, Leaf Green, Intense Blue and a little Turquoise.
These hadn't been ironed yet and they are so much fun to iron!
A t-shirt using the same colors -- not quite a bright as the fabric!
A long-sleeved t-shirt using those same colors. These are the Basic Editions t-shirts that I used to get at K Mart and hopefully they will have them again as I would like to get a couple of turtlenecks.
I should note that I still haven't used up all the ice in that $2,99 bag and have done six t-shirts and 6 yards of fabric. I only put on a layer thick enough to cover all the fabric. I think I have one more session left with the remaining ice -- it was a 20 lb bag I believe.
I have been seeing a lot of the Cabbage Whites lately. I spotted a couple of other butterflies but a little early yet for the onslaught.
We have been sweltering here as has been most of the East this week. Good thing we got new air conditioning last summer! It is like a steam bath to go outside -- I have noticed that it is no worse in NC than here this week.
I have noticed this damselfly a lot lately but haven't been able to identify it. It is mostly blue/green with large red eyes but I don't believe it is a red eyed damselfly. Any hints, anyone
The everblooming begonias have been overtime just covered with flowers continuously the past month. Pictures just don't do the colors justice.
The hibiscus has been gloriously happy as well and we have several new varieties including this one.
Another new one -- all yellow.
Our older red and salmon colored ones have bigger flowers and more flowers than I have ever seen on them. The weather is definitely agreeing with them. Our perennial hibiscus should be out soon and those flowers are dinner plate sized!
This is a piece of fabric created by ice dyeing. The only difference between this and the snow dyeing I usually do (besides the obvious substitution of ice for snow) is that I have used powders rather than the liquid form of the dyes. Ice resist dyeing is the perfect thing to do when your temps are in the 90s!
The process is pretty simple and I will have some pictures tomorrow of intermediate stages as I am doing some t-shirts now. I basically get a plastic box and balance a cookie rack solidly over it. I soak a couple of yards of fabric in a soda ash solution (1/2 cup soda ash to 1 gal water). I then scrunch it to a thickness of about 1 inch across the rack. I then cover the scrunched fabric with ice chunks -- I prefer slightly smaller ones than the ones out of your ice cube tray so purchased a 20 lb bag for $2.99 which has gone pretty far so far. I try to have all the fabric covered with the ice but it is hard at the edges. I then take about 1 tsp of dye power / yard and spread it as evenly as I can across the whole top. A dust mask is a definite need at this point. I like to use mixed colors rather than the pure colors as they move into the fabric at different rates. I let the ice melt which takes 2 or 3 hours. My next step is different from others in that I then take the fabric and nuke it for about 4 min/yard making sure it gets nice and warm. The reason I do this is that blue won't take with just the cold and needs a little heat. Many snow and ice dyes have found this out the hard way!!
The fabric is really a lot prettier than in the photo -- there are more subtle colors in it. I used just Pro Chem's Basic Brown and Black 904 to get this.
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