Lockdown Day 25

The first couple of weeks of Lockdown were sunny and hot and it felt like a bonus Summer. I was glad I took the opportunity to do some outside dyeing about three days in a row.

I haven't done much dyeing lately because we've been in a bad drought since November, eventually we were on Level 4 water restrictions, which means essential use only - drinking, cooking and hygiene. The garden went to seed except for what I could keep alive with grey water. And there was no way I was going to be able to justify using water to dye with. 

Then we had a little rain and I decided to start dyeing again, but not rinsing, as it's the rinsing process that takes the big whack of water with the way I dye.

This is part of the current stack waiting to be rinsed. I've let them dry so I can store them.

Thanks to Covid-19, very few tourists are in town and water usage has dropped markedly. We are now at Level 3 water restrictions, so still no rinsing of fabrics, but it really feels like we've turned the corner towards Autumn. Daylight savings is over, the light disappears quickly, and there is a chill in the morning air that makes my thoughts turn towards slippers and hot stews. And we've had more rain, enough to start planting the garden out.

Even without the sun I did a little dyeing today. Splashing colour around is so satisfying. And even better, I listened to a podcast with Carol Sodurland (fabric dyeing legend) being interviewed by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer (art journalling legend) while I played worked.

But she got me thinking. Carol is the queen of process. She teaches a system where her students come out with a book of more than 1000 (yes, ONE THOUSAND!) swatches and recipes how to repeat that colour. I used to keep swatches of almost everything I made so I would know how to do it again, but now that I know what I'm doing, dye all the time, and have my favourite techniques, I don't really bother. 

But I'm thinking maybe I need to update my swatch book. There are a couple of extra colours of dye I use now, and I never completed every gradation and greyed colour that I wanted to. Maybe I need to discipline myself to swatch up all my variegated colours that I do so I can repeat them exactly - or as exactly as dyeing gets. 

Or I could just take a class with Carol. One day, that would be my dream!

Who is your dream tutor? Who would you travel especially to learn from? 

My favourite recent piece. This is a big embroidered tablecloth and I can't wait to see how it looks rinsed and dried.