Every night after Linda's workshop she'd come home and we'd go over her notes, never getting to bed before midnight. I know she's not going to like this picture, but it's such a Linda expression and I love it. I loved having her here for six days. We were like school girls, catching up, giggling and talking until we were lightheaded.
This is one of the exercises they did in the class. Keep in mind that this is all math. I kept thinking that I would have given anything to have a math teacher who would have made the subject fun when I was in school. Jennifer made it fun!
Ian scanned the basic form and emailed both of us so I have since made my own. I am weak at the knees when I think what I missed in school. This is just math and it's very fun. I'm registered for a tapestry weaving class this weekend taught by Toni Lowden. All the things Jennifer taught should be applicable to tapestry weaving. Toni's weaving is on exhibit at the Nevada Museum of Art right now. That's the cliff I've lined myself to jump off next.
So anyhoo, yesterday Linda and I went over to Mim's to collect some of her madder root. It's in Mim's vegetable garden and after the initial planting five years, has taken over a rather large section, specifically where she wants to plant her pumpkins.
Here's some of our collection. We've never dyed with our own madder root so we have no idea what we'll get. I've planted some of it already. We collected a couple of paper sacks of roots and I kept some but we sent most of it I sent with Linda. She has received a grant to present a natural dye workshop to her Portland weaving guild. After we got home, she collected a lot of native plants from our yard. Frankly, the inside of her car really stinks. I have no idea how she's going to live with all these weeds until she gets home.We couldn't leave Mim's until we paid a visit to her babies. These are her two miniature LaMancha does and their two sets of triplets. Their teeny bleats, piroettes and antics are better than any TV show any day of the week. I miss Linda already. The older I get, the more I know that my friends and family are the richest part of my life. The rest is stuff.
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6 comments:
Looks like you have such a busy life with a lot of fun things.
Your blog posts always make me smile but sometimes I wonder; when do you sleep? :)
Hope you have a nice weekend and will enjoy your tapestry class.
Too much fun! I'd like to get some madder too, but I have a bag already dried, and don't think it would grow here (too acid).
I miss all of you guys - I'm hoping I can get by Memorial day weekend - I'm meeting my dad at Mary's to pick up the travel trailer. More later.
Jennifer does do a great workshop. And her work is very inspiring...what a sweet lady.
Good luck with the tapestry class this weekend. What are you going to use as a tapestry loom?
Also...loved seeing the high school class where you did the demonstration. The biggest difference between high school students and adult learners: the high school students feel that they "have" to be there. Adult learners are their by choice.
This should be an exciting tapestry class!
Soak the clean madder root (chopped into as small pieces as you can) over night, then strain the water off. Use fresh water to do the actual dyeing in. Alum is the best mordant. This will give you the best reds that can be gotten with that batch. You can use the first soaking as a dye as well, but it will be orange. I have found the best way to get the deepest reds from madder is to put it in a large glass container (an old fish tank - 10 gallons works great) and set it in the sun for several days (or weeks). You'll need to cover it with something to keep the critters out of it. If you have the patenience, the longer you leave it, the richer the color will be. The pH and nutrients of the soil it was grown in has a lot to do with the color recevied, too.
I love madder!
Lucky you...I would luv to have access to Madder root :-)
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