I would like to live a gypsy lifestyle...this past month has been the kind I love...
I visited lovely people in Tasmania and enjoyed such varied fun as staying in a beach hut, attempting to not freeze stiff on Mt Wellington, going to see a roller derby and taking in the gorgeous sights of Russell falls and Peddar lake.
Earlier on in the month I got down to Victoria and took in the sights of rural Victoria, Daylesford, Ballarat, Greens lake, etc and had my first lesson in hand spinning woollen yarn on an Ashford wheel with my amazing aunty Isabel.
While travelling and home I have been making up new stock for Village life market, Cultiver and Reverse Garbage and a pop up shop stall this weekend outside of Nook. For the latest R.G exhibition I used some recycled leather to create pendants and dyed some blankets to fashion into felt flowers...very stimulating to work within their guidelines of recycled content and the theme of "salvage garden.'
And the dyeing continues and evolves... I learn each time I dye that I need to learn more! I have borrowed my friends book eco dyeing by India Flint-it is beautiful and would be wonderful for textile artists who want to dye their own fabrics. This is some cotton yarn I dyed with eucalyptus and mordanted with iron to bring out a blue-grey colour.
Eco experiments aside my more modern dyeing projects are ongoing and I am loving the landscapes rainforest collection of fibre reactive dyes gifted to me by my aunty...hand dyed yarns whether they are chemicals from plants and metals or manufactured are soooo different to the colours you find in shop bought ones. There is just not the same bland conformity or sameness about hand dyes...they burst with life and bring my attention and focus to a steady place as the colours shift and deepen and lighten (as I work them up into crocheted items.) I love the variety and the uniqueness of each batch.
cheerio :o) Kate
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