As reported in an earlier blog, 5 of our members attended a dyeing day with Magie at her home in Meltham, earlier this month and Sue Tyldesley reports -
On a beautiful hot day in July we set off in search of the Indigo dyeing workshop.We decided to find our own way off the motorway , but soon discovered things were not that simple...there are a series of parallel valleys with no links between! We had a very attractive but rather long adventure through narrow lanes and round sharp corners but eventually found someone who could tell us the way and arrived 30 mins late ! Magie was very understanding and ran the whole day late for us.
The morning was spent looking at Magie's samples and then preparing our own.
I enjoyed working in the garden in the sunshine -folding material with my feet and tying plaits , pleats and other patterns.
Just before lunch we made our own individual indigo vat-a bit smelly and we used synthetic indigo, as indigo is one of the few products where the synthetic is exactly the same as the natural. We spent the afternoon dyeing our samples and taking great delight watching them turn from yellow through green to blue. Quite exciting to see what turned out and we were all very pleased. I dyed some silk chiffon and fleece for felting as well as cotton and silk and bone beads. I brought my vat home but unfortunately it was exhausted by the time I got home -just like me !
Magie was a wonderful host and teacher , made us feel very welcome and was very patient. Her stock of African fabric and other items was also a delight to see.
I thoroughly enjoyed the day and would recommend it.
I've made the dyed pieces from an old cotton blouse into a bag and still have the silk chiffon and fleece to experiment with.
Sue’s old cotton blouse with a stitched pattern of butterflies which she dyed in the vat and has now made into a bag – you should never throw anything away!!!
A wonderful ‘Sunburst’ by Sue Abbott
Karen Hurrell told me that it took her ages to stitch this pattern before dyeing, but well worth the effort.
Tracey Ramsey’s collection of fabrics and some felt balls made from dyed fleece.
Sue Chisnall’s collection of dyed fabrics and threads.
I was very disappointed not to be able to go, but my husband had just had a knee replacement operation and needed to be transported to his physio class that day – so hopefully I can go next year when Magie will be running more workshop days.
We are now expecting great things from the 5 who attended and want to see more finished items from these wonderful fabrics.
Well done to them all – it was a baking hot day and I hope to have more photographs of them at work in the garden which I will post later.
Wow - what a great collection of lovely dyed fabrics and other items. They look really good.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like it was a really interesting workshop. Shame you had to miss out Sandra but as you say hopefully you can go next year.