Workshop with Jane Hare

What a brilliant day we all had.  Thanks go to Jane and Linda who put in so much work so that we could have a really good day.  Jane must have spent quite sometime preparing everything so that the day went smoothly and we all took home a pile of samples.  Linda spent all day in the kitchen with steamers and pans of boiling fabric and paper.  We were doing Eco-dyeing, sometimes called Botanical Dyeing, either way, we made some lovely pieces with it.  Everyone was tired at the end of the day but more than happy with what they had done.  I managed to remember to take photographs and have got loads here to show.
Firstly, we dyed pieces of an old pink wool blanket using just vinegar and water.

I photographed mine so I would be able to recognise the button when they all came out of the pans.

Next we did two long strips of wallpaper lining paper and four small squares of another paper which may have been tyvek but Jane wasn't too sure about that.  These were mordanted with an iron solution of ferrous sulphate.  Again I photographed my roll before putting it in the pot.

We had placed one piece of paper over the top of the other with the leaves between and got two copies of the same arrangement.
Next we did a length of cotton fabric with kitchen roll over the top.  This was dyed with an alum mordant. 

Some of the darker images didn't photograph so well because of the shadows in the hall.  Next we did watercolour paper with a vinegar mordant.  We each did 12 squares of these with two images of each leaf.

Our last pieces were 12 pieces of cartridge paper and no mordant was used.  Everything was timed so that the last pieces went into the pot as the first pieces were ready to come out. A really great day, can't recommend it enough.

May Meeting

I am back now from all my holidays and operation on my toe although I am still in a stylish boot and won't be able to drive for a while yet.  Worth it, being pain free.  The girls have all been busy keeping up with their postcards and work for the exhibition as well as other projects.  We are all looking forward to our workshop next month with Jane Hare eco-dying.  I have been busy knitting gansey patterns and translating them into canvas work.  I hope to put them together to make a large canvas work piece.  I have attached a couple of photographs of the work in progress.  I now need to work out how to display them.

Afraid you can't really see the knitting patterns as the wool is too dark but I assure you they are there.