those walnuts have been rotting cheerfully away in the vat for a long time now and just in the last week,  i am dropping in scrap after scrap.  

Brown.  Not indigo, or golds or yellows or beauty full marks with leaves and things….just Brown.

 

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this is 2 ft long,  6 in wide.   Here it's on the SouthWest window curtain late in the afternoon so an illuminated brown 

 

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i think if asked about Favorite Color,  no too many might say

brown

as i fed and filled Goat water,  i looked for brown Out there…there's a lot of brown and of course,  all the earth under my footpalms is brown.  That crazy Kochia weed that makes this Place Green in warm months is beginning to become brown.  The leaves of the old Apricot are becoming brown.  All the wood fencing, brown.   Even the mountains,  without the magic of SUN,  them,  brown,  the Rim, brown.  Horizon, really, brown.

maybe brown is the soft undercolor of things…like the undercoat of sheep,  the hidden

i'll try to take some more "true" pics of this strip of cloth tomorrow maybe…depending…,  here because of the light coming through the curtain,  it's not quite true,  but then it is,  in it's

circumstance

I sigh.  Something about this brown walnut dye cloth is letting me get free of something.  It's comforting and because it's   "not so much"  it is letting me not need it to be anything other than what it is and maybe it's then letting me be nothing other than what i am.  Maybe i am brown.

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35 responses to “so, what’s the deal, i’m wondering????”

  1. Peggy Avatar
    Peggy

    Brown is the undertone and makes anything in the foreground just pop. Looking at your three previous photos of the “single” flowers popping against the brown background.

    Like

  2. sue Avatar

    earthy.. natural.. beautiful.. browns.
    a fertile colour.. reminds me of the scent of earth..
    and the taste of chocolate:)

    Like

  3. Michelle in NYC Avatar

    Black walnut is definitely a wonderful base, and it gets deeper with each dipping too. I’ve sometimes re-folded and tied, dipped again, or dipped just parts again. Something so satisfying about the process. And, yes, just about everything in nature seems to brown with age. Brown is beautiful!

    Like

  4. Mo Crow Avatar

    have you ever made a color chart of all the browns you can make by combining opposite colours on the colour wheel?

    Like

  5. Nancy Krampf Avatar

    hummmm i see sepia
    reminds of the past
    sooo many browns
    carry on, give her another dunk 🙂
    x0

    Like

  6. Marti Avatar
    Marti

    Brown is grounding and that is good because it centers so much of what I do with cloth. Brown is elemental but far from ordinary or boring. Using walnuts is my favorite way of getting browns but I have also used tea, coffee grounds, tree bark grapevine bark, mesquite shavings etc. Still, it is especially with walnuts, that the rich and diverse range of brown colors comes front and center.
    When I lived in Tennessee, walnuts were just down the country road from our home and in a local park. They were large and I collected them when their husks were green. In my experience, green husks tend to give a more solid depth of brown. Here in New Mexico, the black walnuts that I have used have been smaller, blackened husks and they have given my cloths a grittier, striated color, leaving wonderful markings along with color. Each have their own special use in my landscape cloths.

    Like

  7. jude Avatar

    brown is my favorite color in a very personal way.

    Like

  8. Deb G Avatar

    I would never be able to choose a favorite color, but I do love brown. For it’s warmth, because it seems to be a color that feeds growth (I think of wood more than earth, the earth here is more gray/black).

    Like

  9. debbie.weaver Avatar

    brown is a favourite colour of mine, I love it with blue, I used to wear a lot of brown before my hair went grey, now I use shades of it in my work.

    Like

  10. cathy Avatar

    I quite like your brown … go with it …

    Like

  11. Martine Bos Avatar

    Walnut brown, all love it so much…..
    Often use it together with Indigo.
    On holiday in France a walnut limp had broken of so i dyed with leaves, wood and nuts. Totally different shades, all very beautiful………

    Like

  12. handstories Avatar

    I do, I say brown, right after blue, & together they are usually perfect. I say it at school, and the children are surprised, but many of them are pleased. It’s probably my favorite clothing color. Earth, chocolate, mountains, animals…I’ll stop now.

    Like

  13. handstories Avatar

    and your cloth is beautiful, really lovely.

    Like

  14. beth Avatar

    Oh brown. How do I love thee. Let me count the ways.

    Like

  15. Susan McQaude Avatar
    Susan McQaude

    What a lovely, LIVING, piece! Brown is a good color, in itself and for itself.

    Like

  16. yvette Avatar

    wow
    this would be my favoutit
    love it
    yes”
    ,
    ,
    ,

    Like

  17. judy martin Avatar

    I think that those of us who attempt to dye fabrics with plants develop a love of brown.
    and tan
    and grey
    and beige
    and off white
    and yellow – the pale kind
    and yellow – the gold kind
    But for me, there is nothing like RED!!!
    Every now and then, please give me red.
    Red thread
    Red fabric
    It makes me live again – after brown after brown after brown.
    Do you have any red thread in your house? xox

    Like

  18. Joy Avatar
    Joy

    I do like the variations of brown. When I first looked at it, I thought it looked like the Shroud of Turin.

    Like

  19. grace Avatar

    it’s true. Brown HOLDS everything so gently and well

    Like

  20. grace Avatar

    ahhh…the taste of chocolate……ahhhhhhhhhhhh

    Like

  21. grace Avatar

    your words make me think of Saskia’s way with Wicking

    Like

  22. grace Avatar

    no…i am too lazy

    Like

  23. grace Avatar

    sepia….i even love to say that word…whisper it
    i should name a Goat Sepia

    Like

  24. grace Avatar

    isn’t it WonderFull how origin of Place gives it’s
    own gift??????

    Like

  25. grace Avatar

    yes. brown is personal…i smile, this is true.

    Like

  26. grace Avatar

    wood…gray/black earth…these are GOOD thoughts

    Like

  27. grace Avatar

    your hair talks to you….

    Like

  28. grace Avatar

    i can’t help it

    Like

  29. grace Avatar

    i imagine you in France, your leaves wood and nuts….
    standing over your dye pot in Wonder…in France, yet.

    Like

  30. grace Avatar

    oh, don’t stop…earth chocolate mountains animals more more
    more

    Like

  31. grace Avatar

    you would. love brown, yes….i would imagine that
    for you

    Like

  32. grace Avatar

    it is, isn’t it, a living color

    Like

  33. grace Avatar

    yes and , , , ,
    ,
    ,
    ,
    more close to your felted things, this

    Like

  34. grace Avatar

    i do. I do have red thread and almost always it’s close to me
    there is some on the work table here
    often i will lay red thread ON a cloth i am working on
    it might never go Into it, but is on it as it goes.
    I guess i could ask self exactly what Red holds to me?????
    or not…just love it how i do.

    Like

  35. grace Avatar

    Love that and i have a grin…

    Like

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