Eco Colour Odyssey

Slow Start

2011-04-18T02:20:00.000-07:00

It has indeed been a slow start for our Nelson group gatherings this year but we did get ourselves together on Sunday (April 10) with a wonderful day at Judy's.

Judy had the fire pit ready with pots that had been simmering for a couple of days

so we set to work making full use of the various plants materials we had brought along or Judy had so generously supplied

Susan was busy with her pieces of pre-loved blankets

Judy was doing lots of things (as usual) but here she is working out an addition for her eco dyed cardigan (op shop find of course - good recyclers that we are)

Sharron came well prepared with her pieces pre-bundled and ready for the copper pot

Chris was having a knitting day - much easier to carry on her motor bike

the pots filled up with all sorts of wonderous things

Fliss and Helen called in for a cuppa and catch up

After much eating, laughing, sharing tips and ideas and catching up with our latest doings

we all went home very happy bunnies indeed

oh and you can see what I did here

Day 5 - Final Day!

2010-12-09T18:11:00.000-08:00

We all gathered with much excitement to retrieve our bundles from the pots on our final morning. After coming back from our lunchtime trip to Cable Bay the day before, we had bundled our garments around rocks brought back with us and popped the lot into the pots to "cook" overnight. Unlike on other mornings, this time we had to exercise extreme patience and wait until we could take them back to the sea at mid day for their unveiling.................

what fun to unbundle amongst the wavelets ...........

but the wait was truly worth it..................

after our pieces were wrung out and stowed in the various vehicles........

two very bemused but friendly travellers did the honours with a number of our cameras.........

then it was back to Lud Valley to put our pieces out to dry, have some lunch and finish up

what everyone agreed had been the "workshop of the year"! Pure magic.........

Day 4

2010-12-08T22:56:00.000-08:00

no surprise bundles to open at the start of day 4 as we had been much too busy stitching, fitting and generally getting our various skirts, aprons and assorted garments ready to be messing around with fires, pots and bundling at the end of day 3...........

so it was more of the same for the morning of day 4 as we had to have our garments ready for a dunk in the sea by lunch time ................

alas I didn't take the camera so you will have to go here to http://prophet-of-bloom.blogspot.com/2010/11/and-so-we-shall-go-down-to-sea.html to see India's pics of our wonderful journey to Cable Bay.

Day 3

2010-12-07T18:04:00.000-08:00

last thing on day 2 saw much feverish bundling so we could get extra pieces into the dye pots in order to have more surprises waiting for us in the morning........ bundling on the long sticks is great as you have a handle for easy removal from the pots ........... some clever people even put beads, pieces of fabric etc on the end to make for easy identification.........there is nothing worse than a misplaced bundle............

also at the end of day 2 India had made up a surprise bundle for the pot.... so after we had all finished admiring our own handiwork, she proceeded to unwrap for us .......

it was an old japanese iron incense burner with a decorative lid to cover the pot - the bowl was filled with a heap of threads, then cloth and leaves bundled tightly around the whole thing..........

there was much anticipation to see what this exotic piece would produce..............

voila! ............more general wandering around appreciating what others had achieved, including these pieces below from Helen, for whom the workshop was her first foray into eco colour but by all accounts, definitely won't be her last............

after which it was off to catch up on another technique or two to add to our bag of tricks.............

by now it was time for more "shirt skirt" sewing so that we would have something to take to the sea the next day for premordanting in the salt water

Day 2

2010-12-05T12:52:00.000-08:00

our project for day 1 was to create a skirt out of an old jumper/sweater/jersey and then eco print it - so after "bundling" our skirts, into the dye pot they went and ..........................
we all had a surprise parcel to open first thing in the morning......... "oh, just like Christmas!"
some rather larger than others .....
and some weren't made out of old sweaters, but never mind..............
how beautiful were the results.....
so after much mutual admiration it was on to our next project............. to make a wrap skirt out of an old shirt...............
with India showing us how!

2010-12-03T20:36:00.000-08:00

a true eco colour odyssey

last Saturday (27 Nov) dawned clear and bright in the Lud Valley in Nelson and it continued on like that for the next five days - both literally and figuratively speaking..........

the two essentials were in place - a wonderful tutor and a fabulous "tea lady"

India was back - some had been waiting 18 months for their next eco colour adventure, others had seen her in between times and for a few it was their first workshop with India .........but I'm sure it won't be there last........

we sat at tables

on the floor

with one even on the couch!

and by late afternoon we had our day 1 projects ready and in the pot

but you will have to wait until tomorrow to see what we got!

Soon we will be one!

2010-07-18T23:42:00.000-07:00

I just realised that we have had only one post this year and yet lots has been happening with our little band of Nelson eco colour alchemists!

As well as our dye days and irregular get togethers, 8 of us had work selected for the national textile award, Changing Threads held in Nelson in March with Judy winning the 2010 Bernina Award for the ‘most creative entry using a sewing machine'.

She is a pretty dab hand at making beautiful bubbles too! Judy has also been using eco colour techniques with her special needs students at Nelson's Maitai School with great success.

Jo had an exhibition at Fibre Spectrum in June and there are plans afoot for more group and solo exhibitions later this year and 2011.

Garments are high on our priority list at the moment, with some amazing creations coming out of the pots at our latest dye day. Felicity was very gracious and agreed to unwrap her bundle at the end of the day, so we could all see her wonderful jacket.

Felicity and her mum Gilda had a job hunting down their bundles amongst the various pots, but all were accounted for in the end.

What fun we have at dye days!

Dye Day Sunday the 11th of April 2010

2010-05-07T21:29:00.000-07:00

The cars were parked, arms laden with dye pots and rounding the side of the house at Ludd Valley the smell of smoke fringed the air. The dye day getaway was well under way. The autumn’s breeze chilled the patches out of the sun. Fallen leaves were plentiful resource splayed on the ground. Judy and Jo already immersed in bundling and wrapping. Jo, with her beautiful silk and Judy her current favourite merino knit fabric.

The fire pit smoldered and held the pots at a simmer. Honesty, herbs, onion and garlic skins were some of the brews. It was a beautiful day for being in the garden, later we used the conveniently fresh pruned rose leaves in a dye pot.

There were a few helpful and pleasant additions to the dye day. Helen brought her daughter Morin. Felicity brought double trouble collies called Mollie and May.

In the garden Morin and Felicity collected plant matter to capture Morin’s first wander full walk. She used the plants sandwiched between a piece of silk and a piece of wool fabric.

It was a magical moment to see the excitement of one’s FIRST unwrapping. It was a reward for all as we all remember our first time. The result was subtle colours contrasted with bright orange veins from the onionskins rubbed from Judy’s own grown onions. This could turn into a delicious scarf as we move into the colder months.

Mollie was a keen helper and wanted to be a part of all the activity, even went as far as to sneak biscuits at afternoon tea to be part of the social scene.

Judy had some lengths of fabric she had dyed and achieved magical eucalyptus eco prints. She had arranged the leaves on the surface but these were dislodged in the folding process, the result was still a gorgeous piece of silk.

Maria and Pam popped in for cuppas and conversation.
We discussed folding techniques and then to what do we do with all of the amazing fabrics we dye. We all agreed that making a larger portion of your wardrobes is a shared goal.

Thank you ladies for another great day amongst the magic we share. The scarf I wore still slightly smells of smoke. The memories that can be captured in cloth bring me to smile.

Dye Day in Lud Valley

2009-10-11T12:38:00.000-07:00

Sunday 20 Sept saw a number of our Eco Colour Group enjoying a wonderful day at Judy Keylock's . The weather was perfect, the fire pit amazing and we all were most appreciative of Judy and Michael's hospitality and the effort they had put into making yet another magical eco colour experience for us. It was great to see what everyone had been doing since the last dye day at Sue's. Maria brought along her two gorgeous daughters, with Maya proving one is never too young to enjoy a good dye up. Judy's fire pit was created especially for the Eco Colour workshop with India earlier in the year, so it was exciting to see pots bubbling away on it again.
Felicity provided a huge pile of onion skins and a brass pot which created an especially rich brew after being on the fire for a couple of hours. There were some experimental pots as well which included small branch prunings from a red japanese maple which had red bark but alas was a bit of a disappointment. We had a beautiful pale green mix that included yellow oxalis and was useful for giving soft green backgrounds.
A piece brewed up in that ended up as one of Jo's exhibits in the Fibre Spectrum show, a pot with wattle leaves and flowers and another with Kophai seed pods - all things we hadn't had a chance to use before given that this was our first sprig dye up! The most popular brew of the day was the rich onion "soup" with everyone cramming just one more piece in - the poor pot was in bursting at the seams. Felicity had great results with a cape in there - hopefully we will see it on the catwalk as part of her end of year offerings for her NMIT course.Judy supplied some wondrous moments with her bubble machine - much to the delight of all of us, not just the children and much fun was had by all. Can't wait for the next get together which will be at Sue's on Saturday 31 October.

Eco Colour Odyessy Exhibition

2009-10-09T14:45:00.000-07:00

Eco Colour Odyessy Exhibition

To see the fruits of our collective labours, go to www.fibrespectrum.co.nz and enjoy our bountiful offerings. Better still, if you are in Nelson, go along and see the exhibition in person.

International Felt Event

2009-09-02T00:00:00.000-07:00

Here is the link to an international felt event that some of you may be interested in participating in. http://www.feltunited.com/

First Dye Day

2009-08-26T04:50:00.000-07:00

Sue checks the pots of boiling water and adds leaves, skins and branches to start the dye baths

With heads filled with ideas and dreams of creating beautifully coloured textiles, a group of dyers met for the first Eco Colour Odyssey dye day at Sue Heydon's lovely home in July to wrap and stitch and boil chunks of silk and wool.

Sue has been a most prolific experimenter and her box of cannelloni-like rolls of wool and silk are a testament to her ability to try any combination of plant and mordant in order to get colour into fabric.
A landskin was the first large project to be attempted at India Flint's workshop and some of the dyers took work away to complete at home and we didn't get a chance to see their finished piece.
The landskin was a collage onto a merino wool base of gauze, embroidery and embellishment with other fabrics. Leaves and flowers were then laid out onto the base and the whole piece wrapped tightly and bound with string or lace. Metallic objects might also have been wrapped into the package to act as mordants. Then the bundle was plunged into boiling vats of onion skins, ake ake leaves, eucaplytus or any number of pots of leafy water.
India's advice to leave it for as long as possible, 'so magic can happen' was perhaps the most challenging of instructions for any of us during the workshop, so impatient were we to unwrap and see...but by the time the dye day came around, we had learned a lot of patience. Sue has a bundle that she intends to leave for some months....before unwrapping.
Chris, one of the less patient dyers, had finished her landskin during the workshop week and has since turned it into a very warm blouse. The landskin can be cut on any angle as it is free from grain and therefore economical and every piece used. Chris has trimmed her blouse with silk also wrapped and dyed during the workshop.

Chris has made her landskin into a garment trimmed with silk. In the background, is a jacket and dress that Sue has dyed.

2009-08-25T00:08:00.000-07:00

Sally and Jo share the wonders of Eco Colour with the Nelson Creative Fibre Group. Maria was there to add her bit about needing to look at things like environmental responsibility and working with plant dyes with new eyes. The Ice Flower demonstration certainly got some excited reactions as the colour magically appeared when the frozen flowers went into the warm water.

2009-08-18T19:44:00.000-07:00

Next Dye Day

Sunday 20 September at Judy Keylock's. 10.30 - 4.00
$10 per person to cover power, firewood and tea and coffee.
Bring you own lunch, dye pot(s), dye materials etc etc.
For further info and to "register" contact Jo on 546 6791 or email at jokin@xtra.co.nz. Yippee - a spring dye up!!

Welcome to our blog

2009-08-18T10:20:00.000-07:00

Wool and silk fabrics coloured with ice flowers, eucalyptus and other plant materials

Eco Colour Odyssey is a group of experiementers fascinated by how Mother Nature's gifts of flowers, leaves and minerals, water and heat, can be used to colour and embellish, with beautiful mark making, natural textiles of wool and silk.

The group has continued to meet following an initial workshop guided by India Flint, an Australian Eco Dyer, author and artist.
http://prophet-of-bloom.blogspot.com/ India Flint's Blog

Group members gather intermittently at friend's homes where there is space for an open fire. We set to making a fire pit into which huge pots of water are put to heat. At times we feel a little 'witchy' as we collect windfall treasures and lay them onto beds of silk or wool then roll and bind them into glorious bundles made weighty with the addition of iron nails or an old rusted bolt. The bundles are plunged then into the bubbling cauldrons of water to which onion skins or eucalypt leaves have been added - and are left alone to simmer for many hours - for it is within those hours that magic happens.

A layer of silk coloured with leaves, stems of lavender and geranium petals.
Bound and submersed in a boiling vat of eucalyptus for three hours and left for a week to steep and stew, at the moment of unbinding the silk reveals the magic that is eco-dyeing.

There is much to learn about working with these wonderful gifts and observing stringent safety guidelines is first and foremost. As dyeing is, in its most basic form, the reaction of chemicals to heat, those working with plants must be aware of poisons that lurk within the plant's cells that maybe released during the process. Far from being a deterrent however, this new knowledge imparts the joy of enlightenment, or, of discovery and our minds expand to encompass possibilities in textile design that we had not considered ourselves capable of achieving with such meagre resources.

Mark making on raw silk - dyed in a bubbling cauldron of ake ake leaves, this textile bundle contained iron nails and was bound with lace which gives the beatiful shibori-like patterning to the fabric's surface.

The purpose of our blog is to provide a space to share with others, some of our discoveries and sucesses - to warn of precautions to be taken when choosing this fascinating method of treating textiles and mostly to remind our group's members of the enjoyment of working together to revive ancient methods of making textiles more beautiful.

Chris McGuigan