Workshops
The Color Institute workshop is underway here at the farm. First day gave us scorching temperatures with high humidity. But the class of 10 are eager to learn and increase our levels of expertise in color theory with Michele Wipplinger at the helm. Her experience with color spans more than 30 years with an acute eye and thorough style of teaching.
we spent much of the first day working with the Munsell Color System.
quiet work while the heat pressed on. we had lots of whirring fans, water and refreshments to keep us comfortable.
then the class moved to analyzing textile pieces by finding the nearest matching color chips.
discussions and observations ensued and tomorrow the concepts and training will deepen
the one stickler in the day is we have a robin’s nest with two bitty birds in the rafter above our workspace.they are going to fledge any day. the past weeks the mother and I have chatted away while I was getting the space ready. she would come and go and feed them in my company. just this morning I sat and chatted with her in the wee dawn light while she came and went with worms and bugs for the babes. but yesterday she wasn’t keen on the other 10 people in the barn. so we took “bird breaks” every hour so she could keep feeding. I am thankful for understanding students who came to learn not worry about the robins. hopefully today she will relax a bit more….we are a peaceful, happy group!
Workshops
Teaching the art of dyeing with indigo in Medina, Ohio was just great. I flew home with blue fingers but left behind 16 students who can now dye confidently with pure indigo using a reduction vat.
From the east coast to the mid-west rain had plagued the region for days but Mother Nature gave us lovely weather the entire weekend.
After some introductions and lecture time we started right in making the indigo stock and then adjusting the vats for dyeing.
I brought a board I created using images kindly and graciously shared by Jenny Balfour-Paul, author of Indigo. Whether you are a dyer or merely interested in the history of indigo around the globe this book is a must read.
While the indigo stock reduced (you can see the lovely jars full of blue) we took a lunch break….
Some textiles I brought to share for inspiration (terribly faded photo, sorry!)
a students work ready to dip…
another student, Betsy, brought a stunning woven piece she created which had a supplemental weft that she pulled to create a resist when dyed. It started as this vibrant salmon pink. You can see how tight the bind is as when undone the piece will be about 22 inches wide.
Betsy dipped the entire piece a few times and the resist started to show….
this was the piece day two, having oxidized overnight. Betsy was done dipping and ready to neutralize, then unbind, wash and rinse the piece. I hope one day to see it in it’s finished state.
Some skeins of yarn a student, Karen, had dyed naturally and brought to overdye in indigo….
and here are a few of the skeins…..
other skeins dyed with indigo, the left are white yarn the right are gray yarn….
indigo stock reducing…
a pretty cloth-covered box I thought would overdye nicely which my lodging host, Jan, found when we were out shopping about before the class…indigo will almost always enhance an otherwise unexciting object! This was after it’s first dip…
some of the students pieces oxidizing as they kept dipping others…
Amanda showing her war paint….
By day two everyone was learning to adjust their own indigo vats with confidence, a fine balance between enough indigo stock added for depth of color plus raised pH and oxygen reduction for lasting color…
more work oxidizing…
a great tee shirt…
Chris dyed this piece and brought it to show me, using India Flint’s technique of eco-bundling. She layed leaves and plant matter on the scarf. The plants she used are celandine (yellow), sand cherry (blue), cochineal (pink) and there are faint whispers of crimson king maple leaves. She bundled it up, let it do it’s magic and this beautiful piece developed…
here is Chris modeling the scarf….although Chris isn’t able to come to India’s workshop in August at my farm I promised to share the project with India…
more pieces continue to emerge….
even a hydranga blossom found indigo!
a delicate scarf with a resist….
I made a woad mother stock on Saturday night and Sunday started a woad vat for everyone to experience…
this was a skein after one 2 minute dip….beautiful French bleu…
woad versus indigo
more woad yarn….
this was a great group of dyers…so much talent, enthusiasm and cool, calm energy. I was treated to a lovely three days. I flew home knowing I had shared the knowledge of dyeing with indigo to them and that will help keep indigo’s history and prosperity alive.
Long live indigo and the Medina Spinners and Weavers Guild!
Workshops
Fieldwork with India Flint
Date: August 22-26, 2011
Cost: $700(day class only), initial deposit $300 (includes $50 non-refundable) upon registration, balance due 6/01/2011. Credit card required with initial registration.
Contact: longridge@myfairpoint.net
Where: Long Ridge Farm, Westmoreland, NH 03467 USA
Lunch: Catered each day and paid by the student
Working with bio-regional dye sources and gentle stitching during an explorative journey in stitch and colour.
In our ‘fieldwork’ we will colour cloth using very simple ingredients; leaves, water and heat. We will work with bio-regional dye sources, windfall bundle dyeing techniques and gentle meditative stitching. Together we shall take windfall-leaf collecting walks to gather material and supplement the harvest with green waste from the florist as well as discards from the green grocer. During the class we will create beautiful dye samplers, gradually piecing them together to construct the foundation of an exquisite composite textile that may be used as a practical plant dye reference. We will harness the effects of scrap metals, different waters and other easily sourced ingredients to influence dye outcomes as well as discussing a range of methods for plant dye application.
Workshops
India Flint will be teaching at Long Ridge Farm in August! The workshop “Field Notes” will be a 5 day journey of collecting and working with dyestuffs indiginous to our land and using them to create your own expression on cloth such as in this piece created by India which is on exhibit in France. Learn to dye with what you have in your own locale, simply and beautifully. It will be a 5 day workshop the week of August 22nd for a fee of $700. I will have all the particulars within the coming week. Space is limited and already four have enrolled. A not to be missed and rare opportunity to work with this unique artist from Australia. About India Flint.
I will be back in the states Sunday evening. A bientot, mon cheries!
Natural Dyeing, Shearing, Workshops
Workshops for the 2010 season at Long Ridge Farm are open! Three day workshops with Michele Wipplinger are featured for August. The first is Basilan: Earth Pigments and Infusions from Mali, Africa. The second is Woad: The Ancient European Blue.
Michele Wipplinger
Patty Blomgren and I will be teaching a series of one day workshops throughout the year focusing on working with fiber and natural dyeing
Patty sharing her expertise with me about my yarn order
Patty Blomgren has been a spinner, weaver and fiber artist for over 25 years. She has taught spinning and weaving at Ewe and Me in Northfield, Massachusetts and currently teaches at Margie’s Muse, Jamaica, Vermont, Maybelle Farm in Wardsboro, Vermont and is in her 13th year teaching spinning at The Putney School, Putney, Vermont as well as numerous spinning classes in the Southern Vermont area. Patty also is a spinning/fleece contest judge for the annual Vermont Sheep and Wool Festival.
For the past 5 years Patty was the master spinner at the Green Mountain Spinnery in Putney, Vermont where her knowledge of handspinning translated to working the Spinnery’s 1948 ~ 96 bobbin spinning frame. Patty graduated in 2001 from Mount Holyoke College with a major in Women’s Studies and a minor in Art. Her final project in Women’s Studies brought her back to her passions of the fiber arts when she was curate for a weaving exhibit at Artspace Community Art Center in Greenfield, Massachusetts.
Teaching people to spin is Patty’s favorite obsession!
Patty Blomgren
Nancy Zeller ~ Photo courtesy of Marti Stone Photography
Nancy Zeller of Long Ridge Farm is celebrating ten years of raising sheep and particularly the most rare and endangered CVM/Romeldale. Long Ridge Farm has won numerous prize ribbons for raw fleeces, is recognized nationally for their involvement with CVM/Romeldales and continues to produce breeding stock lambs from their flock of CVM/Romeldale sheep. Nancy received a BA in Art from UNH at Keene, NH and has been immersed in natural dyeing since 2005, working side by side with Earthues of Seattle, WA. She teaches by request throughout the Northeast. Nancy does custom dye work for Green Mountain Spinnery as well as individual requests. You can visit her at fiber shows throughout the year around New England and also by visiting her studio at Long Ridge Farm.
Learn to spin, learn to dye with indigo, learn how to buy the best fleece, learn to use combs and carders properly and more…. won’t you join us this year?
