Sania Pell

monochrome sea

August 8, 2013  in food styling, inspiring places

Going through my photographic archives I discovered these images that I took last year on holiday. One of the most wonderful things about our Summer time in Croatia is the fresh simple delicious food. This fish came direct from the local fishing boats to the village market the morning they were photographed. They were barbecued for our lunch accompanied with salads and fresh bread. What especially caught my eye was the beautiful silvery tone of their skin.

These shells with a pearlescent interior are known locally as Peter’s ears and can be found in the bay we swim in if you snorkel for long enough. I dived for them like treasure as a child, much like my children do now too, their silvery inside catching the light under the water.

Mussels can be bought in the village market if you are lucky and early enough and I just loved their deep, inky colour; another delicious lunch.

We are travelling to our little house on the bay this week to dive for treasures and swim in the deep blue sea.

I have been using Instagram over the last few months and will try to post a few photos while I’m away and when we have access to wifi in cafés. If you would like to see what I’m up to you can follow me at instagram.com/saniapell.

I’ll be back soon with lots of exciting news of what I’ve been up to over the last few months. It’s all been hush, hush but I will be able to tell all soon. x

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experiments with ombré

August 1, 2013  in homemade

A few weeks ago, with a spare sunny weekend at home, I had fun dip-dying fabric to create an ombré throw. It had been on my to-do list for a while and I had some plain white linen ready, a sachet of hand wash Dylon dye and a packet of salt to fix it. I used Black to give a deeper intensity of colour and in the fade has a blueish tint to it. To begin I hand washed the fabric. Then I mixed the dye as per the instructions on the packet and dipped about half the fabric into the bucket of diluted dye, swishing it around carefully, so it did not splash the white linen above.

After about half an hour I rinsed the dyed section. There were a few splatters on the white section of the fabric, so straight after hanging the fabric onto the washing line outside, I used a wide paint brush to paint more dye on gradually and this gave the gradient, ombré effect I wanted. After a while I rinsed the fabric again and left it to dry naturally. The shadows from the foliage in the garden added a fleeting pattern whilst the fabric was drying.

I also painted stripes directly onto other pieces of fabric for an alternative look. Wet the fabric first and the dye spreads when you paint it on and repeat several times to get a more intense colour.

To make the most of the mixed dye, afterwards I dyed a pair of my favourite black jeans that had faded over time from washing and are now refreshed! You can see the colours available on the Dylon website.

My finished length of ombré fabric is now folded over an arm of the sofa, giving the corner of the living room another visual layer and a reminder of an afternoon creating in the sun.

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the colour of food: homemade fabric dyes

July 29, 2013  in food styling, homemade

The photos of vegetables in Singapore in my last post reminded me of these photos that I took last year and have been meaning to post. It must be my printed textile background coming back to me, because one day I had the urge to experiment with natural colour and play with food and fabric. I popped to the supermarket and worked on the theory that if it stains clothes (mine occasionally but mainly my children’s!) then it may have a longer-lasting dye quality. So I bought beetroot, red onions, blackberries, red cabbage and pomegranate and I had lots of other possibilities in the cupboards at home to test out too.

I did some research and found it wasn’t really as simple or as easy as I had hoped to fix the natural colours permanently, chemical dyes are much easier for this, but I continued anyway. My method was to boil water, add the foodstuff, mix it around to colour the water in a concentrated enough way, sieve it and then add swatches of plain white linen to my homemade ‘dye’. I wet the fabric in clean water before adding the swatch to the dye and left them in soak for varying lengths of time until I liked the colour or it seemed to no longer be darkening. To fix them I added a mixture, in an experimental sense, of vinegar for vegetables and/or salt for berries. I then washed them in cold water first and then hot. The results are below:

1- Blackberry, 2- Blackberry and red onion peel, 3- Blackberry and red cabbage, 4- Blackberry and red cabbage, 5- Beetroot (pickled), 6- Beetroot and tea, 7- Spinach, 8- Red onion peel, 9- Pomegranate, 10- Red cabbage, 11- Red cabbage and a pinch of turmeric, 12- Red cabbage and turmeric, 13- Red cabbage, turmeric and vinegar, 14- Red cabbage, tiny amount of turmeric and vinegar, 15- Red cabbage with vinegar, 16- Tea, 17- Coffee, 18- Paprika, 19- Red wine, 20- Red wine and tea, 21- Turmeric, 22- Turmeric with wine, 23- Turmeric with wine and tea, 24- Turmeric small amount

I don’t think there would be much possibility in colouring large enough quantities of fabric in a colourfast way to make cushions or throws, but I love the colours I made with this experiment and mixed a few together to give new combinations.

It was fun experimenting with food and fabric, especially knowing that it was all completely natural, and I was pleased with the gentle colour results I achieved.

And luckily I didn’t get any on my clothes! 🙂

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colours of singapore: little india

July 8, 2013  in inspiring places

This is the final installment of my family’s travels to Australia and Singapore. I took these images in Little India, the area where we stayed. Of out two days in Singapore we spent half a day wandering around temples, markets and soaking up the atmosphere. It was a little taster of India for the family and a reminder to me of a country I visited a long time ago.

As in India, the colours were so vibrant and interesting, the buildings charming in their detail and the temples enthralling in their story-telling through paintings and sculptures on walls and ceilings. Small shrines on street corners and, as in every area of Singapore, people enjoying street food. The street market was my favourite area with vegetables piled high and flowers strung in garlands.

After an adventure like this I still feel refueled and recharged. The joy of visiting friends on the other side of the world and experiencing a taste of Australia and Singapore will stay with us all for years to come.

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colours of singapore: chinatown

July 3, 2013  in inspiring places

We spent a day exploring the temples and markets of Chinatown, a large area in Singapore, where we felt totally immersed in a different culture. We were all enthralled by the tranquility of the temples, the smells of incense, local people worshipping and the bright colours and patterns all around us. I was drawn to photograph the details, colours, illustrations and shapes and hopefully they give a little glimpse into this amazing place.

The markets were full of interesting objects, fans, instruments, beads and strung overhead with lanterns. We embraced the Chinese food halls and queued with locals for delicious savoury main courses and fruit smoothies blended in front of us. Wonderful combinations of dragon fruit with kiwi, mango and passion fruit, watermelon, strawberry and rose and sugarcane with lime. We became quite adventurous in our choices which the children loved and the colours of these juices were spectacular.

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colours of singapore: flowers

June 29, 2013  in flowers, inspiring places

The tropical colours of Singapore were amazing as we passed through gardens and areas like Chinatown and Little India: Hot pinks, citrus oranges and acid greens, sky blues and metallic golds. Flowers were everywhere, popping out against the urban landscape along roadsides, in parks, temples and for sale on market stalls.

I’ve loved using a close-up macro lens and playing with depth of field since I bought my first 35mm SLR film camera whilst at art college, and flowers are my perfect muse for this kind of abstraction. I can’t help myself and find wherever I travel I am drawn to photographing flowers, so in Singapore I was in heaven.

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