Drawing a rose on this piece I’ve been working on for a while. I’m determined to finish it! Making progress today. 🌹
I’m drawing using a mixture of pine soot & deer horn glue. I mix it in the mortar & pestle to get rid of the clumps. It’s very important to me to make my art supplies using natural ingredients whenever possible, because it makes me feel more connected to nature. 🥲💖
Growth 💖
More leaves are starting to show up in my indigo! The leaves grow on each node. It wasn’t like this a week ago, so I’m excited to see all the rapid changes 💙 Once the leaves mature more, I’m going to prune each plant by clipping between the nodes and propagate them to create more plants!
The fun is unstoppable 🥰
The way I’ve dedicated the past 5 years growing Persicaria tinctoria 💙 it’s Japanese indigo! :-) The weather is warming up here in LA—notice how the leaf got a little scorched, and it’s blue! Because there’s pigment in the leaves!
Such a special and sacred plant to me. I mainly use it to make indigo dye but I think I want to start exploring its medicinal benefits.
Making cyanotypes (sun prints) today using flowers I’ve pressed. Here is a yellow hibiscus and some poppy leaves 🦋✨
2024-04-06 22:10:35 +0000 UTC View Post
AHHHHHH! I'm so excited to announce that my first OF TV episode just launched today :-D! I made a tutorial on how to naturally dye fabric using Avocado skins and pits! The color that comes from avocado is....PINK! 🥑💖
Please have a watch and let's get crafting together. Thank you all for your support so far on this new journey for me 🥹
https://of.tv/video/660ef350620ba70001c668d8/
Good morning ✨
About to head to the studio!
I had to check in on my garden first of course :-)
AHHHHHHH I’m so excited! I planted “Pink Cosmos”, which is another dye plant, and they just started waking up. I can’t wait to use these for dye. But for now, I will admire them in their beginning stages because it’s so exciting to me when they first emerge from their seeds.
I also planted Black Knight Scabiosa, Coreopsis, and Black Magic Bachelor’s Button. They are all slowly starting to come out too. I think it’s really beautiful the way plants come out when the conditions are right. They can sense the season and it’s truly magical!
Can’t wait to keep showing you the progress 💖
It’s a gorgeous day today and I finally set aside time to do some calligraphy and painting with pigment today. I will be mixing some pine soot (black powder) with deer horn glue I got from Japan.
I love having a moment with my materials. I got these inks and glue from Japan last fall. It’s so inspiring to me 🖤
Carving some hemp (grew it last summer)!
I’m gonna use it to hang a tapestry on it :-) this hemp stem is the perfect a little wall hanging device! Makes me so happy these precious materials grow right in my back yard.
Cool thing about hemp: it’s super strong because it’s fibers are super long! It is in the ‘bast’ fiber family—similar to linen.
I can’t stop being in my garden 🥲 I’m addicted!!! I just harvested some ginger I grew. I’m going back into the studio tonight I promise 🩵
2024-03-29 01:24:45 +0000 UTC View Post
I went SO hard in the garden today!
And I do it all for my indigo plants 🥲💙 (and a few other plants)
I cleared so much space; took out all the weeds and existing plants, added fertilizer because indigo LOVES nitrogen. And then planted away. In the bucket are indigo plants I grew from seed ready to go in the ground.
I also found some cute little slugs 🐌 ! And then planted another plant I use for dye, called Scabiosa. There’s a picture of me holding the seeds. I like how spending so much time gardening and in the sun has really brought out my freckles. 🥰🥰🥰
Making natural dye is a labor of love for me. It’s a lot to tend to! But it’s soooo fun. 🤩
With the arrival of Spring, this means gardening is in FULL SWING!
Everything is waking up and it’s sooooo lush and green in my garden. I will give a little garden tour 💚
Here is some Citronella Geranium I am growing. It smells AMAZING, I wish there was a way to virtually transmit scents because it smells sooo good. I love all different types of Geranium, this one in particular smells like a floraly citrus that just wakes you up. I would LOVE to start crafting hydrosols, especially with this plant, does anyone wanna get me a hydrosol starter kit? 😋 This would make an amazing hydrosol. Hydrosols are basically floral waters which is acquired through hydro distillation. It would be so epic to start this project, it’s been on my to do for a while 🧪
Yesterday I spent all morning painting my studio blue - it’s my favorite color! Needed some change and now I love how it feels inside the studio 💙
Afterwards, I decided to take a trip to the beach to relax. ☀️🌊 Write to me to see how my beach trip was ;) 👙
Do you know about winnowing?
It’s the process of using air and wind to remove any chaff or pests from your seeds!
This was the final process for separating my arugula seeds from their husks. It makes the seeds a lot cleaner from any debris. All the remaining husks simply fly away and the most viable seeds will drop to the bottom of bowl because of their weight. I use a fan to do this (only fans! Hehe) This is my favorite part of seed saving. Then I am left with nothing but seeds ❤️ I’m going to start sprouting them to make delicious microgreens. The seeds also taste like mustard seeds <3 yum
Went to the botanical garden today! I love Spring 🥰 it’s full of inspiration. I think I want to craft something with floral imagery in it next…
2024-03-18 05:34:18 +0000 UTC View Post
I love plants. And I love saving seeds!
As I mentioned earlier, growing plants is a huge part of my creative practice because I use them to to make dyes with. And sometimes I use them for food! I grew some arugula and let the plants go to seed. Now I am separating them from their seed pods- take a closer look. It’s really cute the way they are nested in there!
I use different mesh baskets to filter the seeds from the pods. First I crush the stems with my hands and break the pods open, then I run it through the mesh basket strainers.
I think I will sprout some of the seeds to make arugula sprouts to eat! Yummy! They will be slightly spicy.
Hope everyone has a beautiful weekend 💖
I’ve been feeling a little sick but finally starting to feel better! Hence the delay of posts 😅
Spring is here and I decided to do a little chop 😳💇🏽♀️ Let’s call it Spring cleaning hehehe. I feel soooo good and feel much lighter. What do you think? Tell me in my DMs ;) I even made some cute videos to show you. Just ask 😘
(I decided to keep my chopped hair for a crafting project LOL. To be continued!)
Finished piece 🎀
What do we think? 🤔 😘
I love it! I love the pattern. This is after 2 dips in indigo. The piece of bamboo is called a “shinshi” and is used to stretch the fabric out and prevent the rice paste from touching itself when it’s in the indigo vat. I’ll try to get a video next time, it’s hard when you only have 2 hands 😝
Printed each bow individually! I’m happy with how this pattern turned out. Next step: hit the indigo dye bath!
2024-03-08 23:12:59 +0000 UTC View Post
Carving a stencil to print with rice paste!
I made my own rice paste using 1:1 rice flour and rice bran and steaming it for an hour. The rice paste acts as a resist. Once it dries, I will dye it, and the parts printed with the paste will remain white 🤍
Also, have you noticed I’m left handed? :P
Another favorite place I went to in NYC was the Noguchi museum. It’s one of my favorite places in the world! It’s incredibly serene and beautiful. Definitely look up his work, it’s very special to see in person and it’s all around the world. He does sculpture, installation, and public art.
I love his work and how textured his sculptures are. I’m obsessed with rocks. If anyone wants to sponsor a stone carving class for me, drop a tip or send me a message. I would be SO grateful to you and I’ll make sure I show you how grateful I am. 😉🩶
Back from NYC!
I had such a wonderful time and left feeling so inspired and in awe. I’m gonna post about some of the art I got to see. :-) here’s my first little dump..
I’m gonna start with my favorite show I saw at Dia: Chelsea. It was a show by an artist named Delcy Morelos, called “El Abrazo” (the embrace). It featured massive immersive earth art sculptures made out of soil, clove, and cinnamon. The whole space smelled AMAZING because of this concoction.
Art has the ability to take our senses to a new place. I wish I could go back there! It was so relaxing and the smell reminded me of raw earth and the holidays.
Who are your favorite artists? Where do you like to see art?
Unfortunately most galleries and museums in NY don’t open until Wednesday. So I’ve been resting and reading and dreaming 🥲 I just started this book and it opened up with a quote from one of my favorite artists, Louis Bourgeois.
What are you reading right now?
I took a little break and decided to go to New York! It’s one of my favorite places to see art in the world, there’s so much of it to see here always. Sometimes when I get bogged down with work, looking at art keeps me inspired. 🩵
2024-02-23 18:34:52 +0000 UTC View Post
The stencil in question 😳 it’s taken me days to hand cut it! My hands hurt. I’m going to use this to print something through it :-)
2024-02-22 02:13:28 +0000 UTC View Post
Sketching and working on something new! It involves paper cutting and making stencils 🔪
2024-02-19 21:54:57 +0000 UTC View Post
Progress 🥹✨
Making lots of progress on this drawing! Feels so good to take a step back and see all the work adding up and getting the spaces filled in. It’s almost done…. Just need a couple of more flowers and to finesse some details…💙 Patience and perseverance is everything!
What hobbies do you have?
Hope everyone has a great weekend! 😊
Tea time 🫖 !
Taking a little break from working to make some tea.
It’s a ritual I love to do when I’m making art or crafting. I must always have tea by my side! I’m obsessed with tea. It helps me relax and get in the zone. I made a blend with jujubes, goji berries, ginger, and honey. Very anti-inflammatory and full of antioxidants, which helps you relax and get more peaceful sleep. Try it! 🥰
Oops, I forgot to show the dyed piece after I took it out of the dye bath! Here's what it looks like before I started drawing on it. I tried so many new shibori techniques! The white spaces will eventually get filled in with drawings. (refer to the earlier post where I talk about using pine soot) !
❤️ Also, HAPPY VALENTINES DAY! ❤️ Send me some love in my inbox and I might send you something fun back ;.) xoxo Coco 😘
One of my favorite feelings is losing myself in the studio and losing all track of time <3 Nothing compares to that floaty feeling of getting lost in my imagination...
Working more on the drawing :-)
Now once all the shapes are masked off and cover in plastic, I soak the fabric in water. Whenever you dye something, the fabric must be wet before it gets dyed. This ensures that the fabric gets evenly dyed 💙
There is a common misconception that indigo is already a dark blue. But what most people don’t realize is that it takes multiple dips to get to that shade. Indigo is a cumulative dye, meaning the shades of blue must be built up to get that dark blue density. It starts off as a really light blue, then we build the shades up. Each dip is about 4 to 10 minutes long. And the fabric needs to oxidize for the same amount of time in between each dip! This means it needs to be exposed to oxygen for the color to stay on. And it took about 12 dips to get to this shade… so I spent nearly two hours just dyeing it. It’s a labor of love 🤪🩵