News
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Ethel Mairet
One of the earliest books I bought was a little hard backed copy of Ethel Mairet’s A book on Vegetable Dyes. I love this book – her recipes may not be as environmentally friendly as we would like them to be these days, but her depth of knowledge and the effort she put into all her work has my total admiration. This year Barnstaple is celebrating the life of The Partridge family – Ethel, Fred and Maud, who were all talented artists. Fred and Ethel in particular being members of the Arts and Crafts Movement, living and working in Chipping Campden at the Guild and School of Handicraft. Each had…
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Fundraising for Ukraine
**** Deadline for questions is 1st April, sign up is anytime during April, if you have missed a session or sign up too close for us to send the link you will receive all the recordings **** 6 live Q & A sessions offering you the opportunity to pose your most burning questions to an amazing line up of natural dyers and botanical printers. Not workshops but privileged access to 6 individuals who are highly regarded in their field. Whether you’re a beginner with a very basic question or someone with more experience and a niggle you can’t quite get your head round no question is too “silly” we want…
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A New Year
Happy New Year! A new year – a fresh start! I hope you all had a really lovely Festive Break and are ready to take on the exciting new challenges ahead. I always feel January is the promise of new adventures so lets get going! For me it is hard work ahead studying for my Post Graduate Research here in Leeds – lots of experiments, reading and writing up! We are moving to Leeds to accommodate all the learning and research that is happening, with no available dyehouse there, so commission work will have to go on hold until this is sorted. The shop is hopefully re opening later in…
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Life can be very exciting!
I am absolutely thrilled to tell you that as well as my Post Graduate Study at Leeds I will also be working as Project Manager for Keracol (an SME based at Leeds University) under the Business of Fashion, Textiles and Technology Partnership (BFTT) R & D programme, led by the University of the Arts, London. Sustainability and the environment have always had a huge bearing on my work, it is a privilege to be involved in such an innovative project. If you are looking to top up any of your embroidery yarns here’s a quick reminder that Ewe and Ply in Oswestry are stockists of Mulberry Dyer embroidery threads –…
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Dreams and reality?
I have some fabulous news to tell you! From Monday 1st November I will be a full time student again, studying at the University of Leeds. I have dreamed of researching the chemistry of dyeing and in particular the relationship between mordant and dye for more years than I care to mention (and probably bored you at events if you’ve given me an opening!). Science changed so much with the development of synthetic dyes, but unfortunately stopped for natural dyes in the early 1900’s. Now thankfully that is going to change! My studies are postgraduate research into mordants – the boring part of the process for most people, no colour…
