Jolly Hollyhocks

I am finally starting a new project! My lamp died- and DH repaired it. I loaned a bolt of PFD to friends - and the new order FINALLY arrived so I can start dyeing again. I drew some holly patterns, had them enlarged at the Printshop. They came out TERRIBLY so- I returned the next day and they redid them for me ! Things are looking up so I have STARTED! YAY,ME!!!!

I adore hollyhocks as you may have seen in earlier posts. I have a LOT of photos and have made some patterns. I dyed a bunch of different silks- Habotai, chiffon,organza and gauze in various pinks, lavenders and some reds because hollyhocks SHOULD be made of silks!

pretty colours, eh?

 Yesterday, I started on the actual piece with a base of cotton, and a hollyhock base of the palest pink Habotai I could manage. This is where I am at the moment- perhaps not too exciting for viewers yet but my hopes are very high for some lovely transparency .

Cotton and silk over paper pattern. Pretty blah at the moment but that pale pink is JUST what I want for the transparent bits where the morning light is shining through the blooms!

This bloom was almost finished when I photographed it so it was virtually transparent. I HOPE I can capture that effect. Here is the photo I am working from-

Big bloom- not really. Just close up :-)

I THINK it is this one. There are two or three very similar . Anyway, this one gets you the idea.

I am going to post quickly to the needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.com and dash as I have to go out. I may add more later.