We are in a wonderful stretch of weather right now. The day highs are in the 70’s and the overnights dipping as low as 40! The sun is still strong; no bugs and no humidity. The sheep are in heaven; able to put their heads down for lazy afternoon siestas.
A few of us got together Saturday here at the farm and dyed with indigo. I prepared the stock in the morning and we made a vat at noon. I had a few skeins of dark gray yarn, Diane had two skeins of oatmeal Icelandic from her flock and Maryanne brought some raw fibers of mohair and wool in mesh bags. We had great success, the vat had good PH and reduction; we had to correct it after an hour of dipping, but that gave us extra time to visit. Dyeing with indigo really is a patient process. The dips can be as little as 20-30 minutes apart or as long as a day, it’s such an individual experience, as the number of dips determines the shade of indigo desired. In the villages of far away lands there is usually one indigo dyer. He can manage up to 100 or more vats all the time and if the village or group moves, so does the indigo dyer. We did two to three dips yesterday and I did one more on Sunday. Each of us are allowing the fibers to rest for 24 hours and then begin the after dye process of a vinegar soak and lots of rinses.
This is a picture of a Bogolanfini mud cloth that I saw at the Earthues studio. It was purchased in Mali, West Africa. The women create these pieces across months of time; they sit on the ground, perhaps a small child in their laps, while they paint strips of cloth with mud which comes from the Niger River, rich with iron. The cloth most often is initially soaked in the leaves from certain trees and the tannins react with the mud to create the black coloring. Negative space design is the unique feature created from this process. The designs are personal to each woman who creates them, a journal and a private one at that. Isn’t this piece of cloth a work of art, rich in tribal heritage and design?
For whatever reason I could not get the pictures to download from the gradation day so here they are…. a view of the Lake Washington ship canal on my way to Ballard one morning, a table discussion of dye pot results and fibers in a pot of weld.
Today was our last day. We all arrived weary and bleary eyed, no way near as tired as Michele , Kathy and their crew…..they really have put an intense amount of energy into our week here and no words could possible express my awe and gratitude. Depth is my only thought, feeling and emotion. It was an intense week of working, sharing space and learning. Today was indigo….I was so delighted to have actually practiced the art for the first time and with success! We paired up so we could dip our gradation skeins from yesterday along with some overdying of our first day with hankies, scarves and ayate. I paired up with Katey, the resident dyer at a farm in Montana and Karen, a wonderful woman who is fortunate to live in Ballard with her husband,and be a dear friend of Earthues. We three had some great fun, as did the other pairs, dipping our fibers and oxidizing and rinsing to see such lovely changes with the indigo. Then the group, with a great amount of help from Michele, Kathy and Coby, labeled and tagged each of the skeins from each color gradation and each of us received a set of 17 wool sample skiens and 12 silk sample skeins for future reference. One moment of awe came as I was leaving and Coby was documenting some samples that she had dyed with the exhaust baths from yesterdays gradation dye pots. One was the most beautiful pale lilac yarn….it was just the color I had been looking for all week and there it was, at the very end, quietly resting! An ahhh moment! I will spend at least my flight back East tomorrow, pouring over the yarns, silk scarves and hankies and ayate, recollecting and storing the information while it is still fresh. This has been a wonderful, enriching and bonding experience for each of us, both individully and as a family of dyers. This is what you come away with after a workshop with Earthues; the dyes are spectacular, they speak through the colors created and the commitment Earthues makes sets the sail to drive us all forward in color, creativity and success!
