Diaper Garden Gallery: Blue Skies and Burning Sun
April 2003
You've heard it; your children may chant it: "April showers bring May flowers." The abundant life of the garden depends on all of the elements coming together: clear air and fiery sun warm up the cool earth and let the water flow. Seedlings are sprouting, and, if you are in the south, you can work with the soil. Soon, the garden will be green again and full of buzzing, buggy life with colorful flowers and the first tender leaf vegetables.
By April, there was really quite a frenzy in the Diaper Underground about the Fuzbaby Diaper Garden. People were speculating what could be next. I left clues throughout the site, with lists on some pages. These lists always contained the next month's Diaper Garden but there were plenty of red herrings as well, like "bugs and slugs." I tried to figure out how to make slug diapers appealing, but I didn't quite succeed. This month, my clue for the next month was right there in the description: "April showers bring May flowers." What could be more obvious!
Setting. Our basement again. The diapers that look like they are hanging in the air are. Marc hung the sky play cloths as a background then sewed through the diapers with fishing line to keep them hanging in the air. This set up happened only after several diapers sitting on something versions just didn't say SKY.
See also Blue Skies and Burning Sun detail plus a few Retrospective Blue Sky surprises from April 2004.
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April 2003
Blues skies & burning sun fitted cloth diaper and cover set: front view
The blue skies fabric varied from partly to mostly cloudy. The undyed fabric was spread wet on a tarp then crumpled to have deep crevices. Marc then sprayed a concentrated solution of bright blue dye over the highest fabric peaks. The tarp was folded to keep the fabric wet--like a giant plastic bag. Then rinse and fix. Simple.
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April 2003
Blues skies & burning sun fitted cloth diaper and cover set: back view
Marc tied and hand painted every sun. That was the biggest job of the Diaper Garden set. First he tied the circles, then he painted dark red in the center and bright orange to the base of the tied circle. Next, bag the circles and over dye medium orange for a corona that gives the sun definition. (The suns were swimming in a fiery sea without it.) Finally, untied it all and overdye the whole thing soft orange. See burning sun close up.
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April 2003
Almost-in-One blues skies & burning sun contour diaper set
I love that curve. I've said it before, and I'll probably say it again a couple of times. The grey was, of course, the silver lining inside the cloud diaper.
I liked this particular diaper so much that I brought it back as one of our Elemental Diapers.
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April 2003
Blue sky wool diaper cover
You might guess that I like this pattern because I put it on so many items this month. I did. I liked the results very much, and I also like how easy it was to create. The wool was saturated with vinegar at the bottom of a plastic garbage bag, artfully crumpled up. Marc then sprayed vivid blue along the highest ridges. The bag was sealed to sit overnight, then the wool was washed and fixed. This was our first month with new, lighter weight wool. It took the dye very well. We needed an easy dye project because we made a ridiculous number of these diapers and covers.
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April 2003
Blues skies & burning sun play cloths
For something big after the tiny puppets, we offered play cloths both square and long in cotton or silk. The Blue Skies pattern was created as on the diapers and covers; the Burning Sun was a large, tie-dye circle with darker red toward the center then overdyed soft orange.
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