{source: Purely Decorative}
On Pinterest I recently came across a beautiful image of fabric swirled with mysterious flower prints. It looked a little like a negative photograph, and reminded me of the avant-garde photographer Man Ray's "rayographs" where he made films/photos using objects directly applied to the filmstrip (check out this post to see a filmic example).
{a rayograph, source: Adele Mary Reed's blog}
It turns out the fabric was dyed using Lumi Inkodye. The dye is light sensitive, so the colour appears after exposure to light. Parts that aren't exposed to light stay white (or the colour of the original fabric).
{source: A Beautiful Mess}
It turns out Elsie from A Beautiful Mess got there before me, but I still had to write about my discovery, because I am simply longing to try this! I found out from this great blog post that the dye is also non-toxic - you don't even need to wear gloves to use it. The Lumi company also strives for as little water wastage in the production process as possible.
{source: how about orange}
I love the idea of combining everyday objects with the power of sunlight to create original fabric designs. Just think - you could use buttons and scissors as in the rayograph above, or cut out shapes, or small open notebooks so that pages fan out... and the possibilities for using different kinds of leaves, plants and flowers are endless!
More than ever I'm longing for the summer: this seems like a perfect sunny day activity!
p.s. don't forget to enter this wonderful giveaway (running until midnight EST on 7th March) to win a one-of-a-kind, handmade owl by artist Ashlie Blake!
