WOW WHAT A WEEKEND

TEXTILE GURU Mahdi Chandler and husband Lloyd arrived on Friday morning and we spent the whole day setting up for the fabric dyeing workshops.  Friend Sue lent us the most wonderful electric Simpson copper circa 1940s i think. Mahdi filled the studio with samples of dyeing with leaves, rust and indigo on fabric and paper, lots of beautiful little books, scarves, and brought along books on dyeing too. also a slow cooker, so we had vats and boiling pots all ready to go. i've never done any of this so it was all quite mysterious. Alchemy.

the sunset

really turned it on

samples that Mahdi brought with her

SATURDAY up early to get ready, boiler on, mahdi already had a few things in the slow cooker, samples of old blanket all tied up with leaves from the garden.  everything smells beautifully of eucalyptus already :0)

Everyone arrived at 10 and it was go go go all day after that, so much fabulous work being produced, lots of demos from Mahdi 

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A welcome break, the sun came out after a frosty start, beautiful warm afternoon, we worked outside most of the time, it all worked really well.  ha ha  everyone's looking a bit glum, just buggared i think :0)

indigo dyed fringe hanging and dripping on my corrugated iron fence 

fine wool scarf being rolled up with leaves then tied to put in the boiler

end of a
successful
day

SUNDAY EVERYONE got stuck straight in, we took the overnighters out of the boiler - some beautiful things produced, people were surprising themselves.  It's quite unpredictable - mostly eucalyptus leaves have been used but they're all completely different results

This is a fine wool
cream scarf that 
has been in the
boiler overnight
with gum leaves
laid along its
length. Below
is the result, this
scarf was really 
beautiful

                    gorgeous combination of gathering and tying
                     dyed with both rust and indigo

that's sue's wonderful copper in the background

end of the day,
another gorgeous
sunset - a drink
on the riverbank
then off to the
pub for tea, 
in bed by 8! 

we were all slightly out of focus at this stage :0)

Now it's Monday in bed early, Mahdi and Lloyd are making getting up noises, lots of pack up and the back lawn is a mass of scattered boiled and discarded leaves :0)  i'm praying for a strong wind to come along