-
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 –…
-
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…
-
A few changes coming
I’ve been very lax about writing posts here, sorry, that doesn’t mean that nothing is happening! So here’s an update! – We intend to start running online courses “live” these are currently in the planning stage, but will be listed here soon. There are so many ” introduction to” “beginner” “learn to” type courses – maybe you’d like to suggest some topics that would be interesting to cover? Due to the changes in VAT selling in / to Europe the shop will be temporarily closed before the end of the month until we have sorted how we can deal with this. As we are a small British business we do…
-
Turkey Red (Part 1)
The term Turkey Red can be quite confusing – it is often used to describe a colour (particularly in modern parlance) – but it is actually an historical method for producing a very fast red colour on cotton cloth using the dyestuff madder. As a collector of historical dye books and Journals it always thrills me to find one I’ve been particularly looking for. At the Antique Textile Fair in Manchester in the early noughties I found one of particular importance – The Art of Dyeing Wool, Silk and Cotton by Hellot, Macquer and M le Pileur d’Apligny. It is said to contain the first (European) written record of how…
-
Something a bit different!
For one of the most complex dye processes there is, the first stage is to dunk your cotton (and it should be cotton – either yarn or cloth) into a bath made up of sheep dung dispersed in water. As I no longer own my own sheep I was lucky to find a field accessible and with the permission of the owner (all current guidelines being followed of distancing, mask wearing, mixing with others, etc). I was able to wander round the field and collect sufficient for the amount of cloth I want to prepare. More information on this particular subject will be coming up in the New Year, for…
