News
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City of Blue
The theme of my posts for the moment is days out. Since lock down was released we are trying to make sure we get out somewhere 1 day a week. This year is so strange we’re making it as positive as possible. We are also lucky that this area is very textiley – there was a huge flax industry here in the past but much of the wealth came from Woad – Isatis tinctoria. Yesterday we went to Amiens for the day. Capital of Picardie. In the Middle Ages it was most famous for the blue dyestuff Woad. Traces can still be found from that period and, I’m pleased to…
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Roubaix – a textile town
As lock down is gradually being relaxed we are allowing ourselves 1 day a week to go out and visit “somewhere”. We take a picnic and are avoiding mixing with people, but this week museums have been allowed to open, so we thought it would be a good time to see some we have wanted to go to for quite some time! So we headed for Roubaix – now a kind of suburb of Lille, this town is known for it’s textiles. In the 18th and 19th C they were big linen and wool producers, now it’s the super high technical fabrics. The first visit was to La Piscine –…
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Workshops
2 New workshops for 2020 at a special introductory price being held at the Home of Dyeing – The Society of Dyers and Colourists, Perkin House, Bradford. Blue is the Colour : Monday 17th Feb 2020 at Perkin House, Bradford. £95 Magical, mystical, moody how many words conjure up the amazing blue colours that come from “Indigo”? Images of the sky and the sea in all their moods, so many shades of blue – come and create as many as you can! Learn the true name of this beautiful dyestuff, how to make up the vat. Dye solid shades and then try your hand at patterning using different techniques like…
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Things that can happen!
When you work for yourself you can think you are invincible. There isn’t time to take a break or go and have that rest you really need! Later, or you’ll give yourself a holiday at some point, but NOT NOW! You take on bookings because you don’t know when you’ll get the next one, think you’ve got it all covered. So John is three score years and ten in a few days … a year ago we planned a holiday with the family. We would go to Pembrokeshire, where he used to have childhood holidays – we’d all go and reminisce with him and see how the place had changed!…
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Woad Balls
Way back in the mists of time MEDATS (Medieval Dress and Textile Society) ran a Dyeing Symposium Weekend and part of it was spent with John Edmonds making woad Balls. John had become fascinated with woad whilst volunteering at the Chiltern Open Air Museum after he had retired, he was an inspiration to many and is the reason that Reading University started its research into the Medieval woad Vat and the Spindigo project being started. First of all we picked the fresh leaves and put them into a bucket. then we chopped them up with the edge of a spade, chopping them small but not shredding. Then we picked up…
