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.

Dye Day in Lud Valley

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

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

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

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.

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.