Day 5 - Final Day!

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

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

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

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!

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!

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

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.