Dyeing Eggs with Silk

I saw a video showing how to dye eggs with silk and my daughter and I decided to give it a go, fortunately she has chickens and so provided the white eggs we needed, had a few pieces of patterned silk to hand so had all we needed to start. One of the silk pieces dominated the other eggs and they all turned out with a pinkish hue to them but the overall effect was pretty good. If you want to try it for yourself then here is the link to the Video. We also made an Easter tree using a few branches from a twisted willow.

I am pretty excited as we are off to Seville for a week so wish you all a Happy Easter and see you soon. If you do the eggs let me know how they turned out. xxx

All in a Spin with OldhausFibers

This is something I have never done but would love to add it to my wish list and OldhausFibers raise, blend, and hand spin their own Angora wool  and are based in Amana Iowa. They use conventional spinning wheels and drop spindles to spin and dye their fibres and yarns along with a variety of felting techniques on their projects. ARBA registered so no bunny is hurt in the harvesting of Angora wool. They opened their store in January this year so if you fancy learning how to spin or need some beautiful angora wool pop over and have a look you might find just what your looking for.

How to Dye Happily

 You might remember me showing you a picture of the Indigo blue dye above which I bought when I was in Morocco (Essaouira) earlier this year.  

It’s a stunning intense blue and harvested from the sea snail called Hexaplex trunculus. Just trips of the tongue that one, don’t you think? Well I have wanted to try the dye out since May and yesterday morning I decided today was the day. I had no idea as to how much powder to put in so I just chucked a goodly amount in and threw some salt in whilst I was at it and left it to simmer away for an hour or so to do its own thing, I just love messing about with natural dyes despite having no real idea what I am doing and without any immediate plans on what to do with it when finished. 

It just fascinates me watching the dyes transform, this one reminds me of batik work or as my girlfriend suggested (tongue in cheek) the Turin Shroud.

 I think as the linen is old and has probably been washed hundreds of times some areas are more worn than others and yet the linen does not look in the slightest way worn, so will remain a mystery. Any way thought I would let you see how it turned out.

 Well I can see why now the thought of the Turin Shroud popped into my friends head! So I have saved the remaining mixture for another day, will it keep and for how long, time will tell no doubt. If I could have I would have brought all the gorgeous colours back. 

**** Fantastic Chateau Dumas Workshop Giveaway 2011****

Last October Chrissie and her daughter Terri came to our Reinventing French Textiles workshop at Chateau Dumas, our beautiful 18th century chateau and 22-acre estate in southwest France.

We had an absolutely brilliant week! The sun shone, we visited atmospheric country flea markets and rummaged in boxes, we made beautiful bags and gorgeous cushions in the studio and we went wild dyeing with woad in the woods. Our group of 8 was expertly led by our wonderful tutor, Ros Badger, author of craft book “Homemade” and a talented stylist (http://www.rosbadger.com/)

Chrissie said she thought the whole world should hear about our workshops – and I totally agree! In fact I’m delighted to announce here that I will offer one lucky person a free place on one of our workshops this year.

So if you think that you might enjoy a week of creativity in a luxury Chateau then please take part in our competition. The winner will enjoy a free place on a Chateau Dumas workshop, worth at least 1400 euros. It includes accommodation, all meals, tuition, trips to markets and factories (flight to Toulouse, France not included).

As well as our Reinventing Textiles, we have Jewellery, Millinery (from a milliner who used to make hats for the Queen and Princess Diana no less!) Painting, and a Festive French Country workshop. Chrissie has asked me to guest blog over the next few weeks and tell you a little about each workshop in turn – thanks Chrissie.

You can see our full creative workshop programme at http://www.chateaudumas.net/
We’re also on facebook http://www.facebook.com/ChateauDumas   you can  email me to join our mailing list at enquiries@chateaudumas.net or you can follow us on twitter http://twitter.com/ChateauDumas


A bientot, Lizzie


Thanks so much Lizzie, now does that not just get your creative juices going, but firstly let me say again a huge thank you to Lizzie for her very generous offer  and whoever wins this fantastic prize is in for a real treat.

I'm sure you are all wondering what it is you have to do to enter the competition and have a chance of winning this fabulous prize. Well, we're going to make it very easy for you.


First of all you'll need to go onto the Chateau Dumas website, look at the 2011 Creative Workshop programme and choose the workshop you would most like to attend. Then, to enter the competition, you simply leave your name and the title of your preferred workshop in the comment box at the bottom of this blog. You can add an extra comment if you like, but you must tell us which workshop you would most like to attend. Lizzie will then pick a name randomly 'from the hat' on 31 March and the lucky winner's name will be announced on the blog. What could be simpler?

Lizzie will pop in from time to time between now and 31st March to tell you a bit more about the individual workshops. You can also Like Chateau Dumas facebook page for more updates: www.facebookcom/ChateauDumas

Rules for Entry
1. Please follow my blog
2.Only one entry per person. The competition is open to anyone aged 18 years or over. Giveaway is open worldwide.
3.Winner agrees to give an interview at the Chateau and to publicity on the blog, facebook and twitter
4. The workshop place must be taken in 2011 and is subject to availability
5.The competition starts on 18th Feb and will end at midnight on 31st March
6. The winner's name will be posted on the blog on the 1st April
7. Return airfare to Toulouse and transport from the airport to the Chateau are not included (transfers available for 30E per person each way)
8. The prize includes accommodation, meals, tuition and trips. Many materials are included; some materials are extra and can be bought at the Chateau.


 

Really looking forward to meeting you at the Chateau

The Day I Dyed and Went To Heaven

On arriving at  Chateau Dumas late Sunday evening turning into the drive I was met with the most spectacular scene of the Chateau ablaze with lights. I was so excited to be finally here and couldn’t wait for the morning to arrive and get started.

The rest of the group were settled and having dinner and I could hear that they were already having a good time. Lizzie (the owner of the Chateau) is such a warm and welcoming person you were instantly made to feel at home.

Last year I did the woad-dyeing course at the chateau and this was an experience that I want to do again and again. When I saw that Lizzie was running a course combining Reinventing French textiles run by Ros Badger and a day woad -dyeing well I just had to go. The course runs for a week but other commitments would only allow me three days, but they were filled to capacity.

9am Monday morning finally came, we all gathered in the studio which is large room with soft greys and white walls and a beautiful hand painted design on the floor, large skylights and the although the day was overcast (the rest of the week was glorious) the room was so light and airy.

A spectacular sight met us with piles of vintage textiles, trimmings, templates, embroidery threads, vintage craft books, a table full of samples made by Ros, and Lizzie, bags made from vintage linen tea towels, covered coat hangers, patchwork hearts to name a few and we all immediately pounced on the table where we could use anything we wanted as Lizzie had provided us with a massive range of vintage pieces to choose from.

I had a rough Idea of what I wanted to do but then my brain went into overdrive and I found my self hopping from one thing to the other, bliss pure bliss. Tuesday, hang on what happened to Monday? The group was producing lots of wonderful items and Ros seemed to flit with ease from person to person offering help and advice if needed, she has an amazing eye for colour combinations. I loved the fact that everyone in the group were also genuinely interested in what other people were making and hints and tips were flying through the room and made the atmosphere really special.

I wanted to make a bag from an old linen skirt and added a beautiful fabric trim to the bottom and decided to line it with the same fabric, I was fiddling about with it and Ros came over and said “ love this bag” I told her this was to be the lining, and with a flash off she went and came back with the most sumptuous piece of green silk and this was added to the top. Ok now I have two bags, but you can never have enough bags, right!!!

Ok Wednesday is here and Denise and Annette are setting up the vats for the woad-dyeing and we are all scurrying about sorting out what we wanted to dip first. She then gave us an interesting talk on the history of woad, which although I heard it last year it was delivered with humour and fascinating facts.

I had a bag at home with lace trimmings, shells, and a few other bits and was furious with myself, yes I had forgotten to bring it with me (well there is always next year) if I am lucky enough!!! So after beating myself up decided just to enjoy watching what everyone else was dyeing, between that and popping back into the studio to make up one or two other things that took my fancy. 6pm came far to fast in my opinion, which meant that my lift back home was due any minute. I bade farewell to my new friends who were still up in the fairy park dyeing with pleasure. I have selected a few pictures and I personally can’t wait to hear what they got up to for their last two days………

I for one had the most fabulous three days, met some lovely people, made a few things that I never knew I could and if your looking for a crafty holiday in the South West of France then I can’t recommend it enough.

http://www.chateaudumas.net/

http://www.bleu-de-lectoure.com/

http://rosbadger.blogspot.com/

And finally Ros will be offering one lucky person the chance to win her handmade book which will be personalised by her own fair hand coming soon on my blog in the next few weeks.