A wonderful natural dyeing day!
We’re just back from a lovely teaching trip to Devon where we spent a day at The Loom Shed’s fabulous well, shed! What a great venue – so spacious and well-equipped and Louise and Liz are lovely hosts.
Our students learned about the differences between fresh, dried, liquid and extract natural dyes – ways each can be used to maximum benefit. We chatted about mordants, substantive dyes, modifiers and lots more. But it wasn’t all talking of course!
We started with a rainbow from the grand teints – madder, weld and Saxon blue – then added some logwood and cochineal (just to spice it up a bit!).
And then it was time to let everyone loose with their yarn and our myriad of dye extracts (20+ plant extracts to choose from!) so they could conjure up their own colours and designs. Add some colour modifiers to the mix and the colours coming out of the pots were just fab!
At the end of the day everyone made up their recipe sample cards to take home along with their unique, naturally dyed skeins.
Then it was a trip back up to Manchester for us and an early night!
Louise and Liz run amazing courses in weaving, knitting and they regularly invite tutors from other fibre disciplines so if you need a fibre-y day (or weekend) away, do have a look at their calendar.
See you next year all being well!
(p.s. Quick plug – you can buy our natural dyes and kits here and we also carry an excellent range of mordants and modifiers. Oh, and if you are interested in attending a workshop or booking for a group our calendar is here and you can also email me for more info).
