bread experiments

a bread post - a post about dough.  Have been experimenting and learning to make bread on and off over the years.  Here are some pictures of the latest results.  Had a lot of help from Dan Leppard's book the handmade loaf.  So far only success has been with leaven from strong white flour.  The spelt experiment coincided with the wood-fired beastie having a rest (had to rod out the chimney).  Long suffering family have put up with my experiments but still prefer shop-bought bread - don't blame them.  Most rock hard loaves have ended up as chook breakfast - they'll eat pretty much anything (though not keen on rotten onions).

dough

added this to the leaven

to stop the dough sticking while proving

to stop the dough from sticking while proving

cooking bread slowly in earthenware in the beastie

trusty tin

wood fired beastie

leaven overflowing

a sourdough loaf from the earthenware pot - this tasted like proper bread

leaven revived

leaven rivived with strong white not spelt

experiments in the greenhouse

plants in flower right now, ready for experimenting in the slow textile studia greenhouse...

fuschia and calendula

calendula

golden rod

greenhouse tidied with space made for experiments.

Silk dyed with onion 'a la India'

I had a eureka moment - it works (o yee of little faith i hear you whisper).  Almost three months ago I set up a bowl of onion skins steeping in water in my greenhouse.  Then I added a small piece of silk wrapped around a stone.

The onions turned the water black/brown and kind of slimy but not mouldy.

onion skins in water with silk wrapped around a stone.

silk wrapped around a stone

I had wrapped the silk around a stone because that's what was to hand.

Silk unwrapped

here is the silk unwrapped, quite creased and showing lots of variations in colour.  Think if had tyed it tighter I might have got a more tie-dyed effect.

dry silk

Very pleased with my first solar dying experiment 'a la India'.  Need to start collection bigger vessels to make bigger bits.  And need to see how light fast it is as did not use any mordant.

Very much looking forward to the end of August as going on one of India Flint's workshops.  

Got this for my birthday present.  Made my tummy fizzy with excitement.  Opened my eyes to all sorts of possibilities to dye cloth more sustainably.  Happily spent the day finding old pots and pans to use as dye pots.  Searching through my stash of fabrics looking for pieces to play with and sample.

I like India Flint's (she's the author) words of wisdom about exploring for yourself - the only way in which the book is prescriptive is about respect for the earth and using less synthetic chemicals.

Set an old enamelled pan full of onion skins to steep overnight.  

Will make some bundles tomorrow.