This years Woolfest at the end of June in Cockermouth Cumbria was the best ever both personally for me and I gather for the Woolfest itself with 5000 visitors . On Friday they had 500 more than last year a truly impressive achievement I think. ]
The Demo area next to my stall | Photo by Peter Davies |
This was the first year I demonstrated and I had one of the new official demonstration stalls-I scheduled for 3 demos each day exhausting but worth it . FRiday was Solar Dyeing , Wild Carding and Natural Dye Inks, Saturday was Solar dyeing, Art Yarns and the Fructose and Lime vat. I was helped by Anne Campbell who taught me to spin and who stepped in and demonstrated the Art Yarns on Saturday which was a not only a huge help but actually she is better than I am anyway. ! All the Demonstrations were very popular but the one that drew the greatest interest were the Solar dyeing Demos which I did on both days and on the back of those I sold out of my new book Colours of the World Eco Dyeing and all my solar kits and I am still filling orders for these. The stall was packed and I even had people peering over the side of the stall-they must have been standing on something and I got a spontaneous round of applause. I loved it.
We finished setting up at 7.30 on the Friday having started at 3pm and after the 4 hour drive were fairly exhausted so shot down into Cockermouth and were very pleased to find the Tarantella open again -last year it was till closed after the floods and we had a lovely relaxing meal with good service . ( You can read the review here).
The Woolfest was packed and thronged with people who did not seem to realise we were in recession. The buzz coming form being in such a dynamic and exciting event was tremendous and The standards of the stalls is amazing. I have been doing the Woolfest since the start and the standard and the range have gone up enormously . Sadly I had even less time to get round but managed to buy a fabulous spindle from IST Crafts and I have now ordered two more . I also bought some smooth fine shaped holly buttons form Tinker Tailor of the Woolclip which I dyed afterwards and I love them and will get some more. The downside was to get a cup of tea we had to walk the length of the Woolfest hall and queue and I always use the portable loos, which I think are fine- as the queue for the other is always horrendous
Enys who brings the dye plants sold out and I have been nagging her for ages to bring things like Genista Tinctoria and the walnut trees that Peter her husband lovingly nurtures. He digs up the sapling grown from nuts buried by the squirrels from a garden near a listed walnut tree with a preservation order on it and brings them on. Enys sold her Genista at Wonderwool within 15 minutes and the Walnut Tree at the Woolfest in the first hour. So now she has conceded that I have point. We are also looking at growing more native plants and she is planning for example to have the European golden rod as well as some more varieties of the Galiums .
Photo by Peter Davies | |
View of the stall ( and Enys) form the Demo side. |
Me showing the colours you can get from inks and wearing one of my naturally dyed felted Jacket | Photo by Peter Davies |
On the last night we went to the Spice Club in Cockermouth where we had the most appalling service . This came close to ruining what had been a fantastic event and is without doubt the worst experience I have ever had in a restaurant and we eat out a lot! You can read my review here.
After the Woolfest we relaxed at a wonderful spot at Scales Farm High Lorton surrounded by the fells and Anne, who stayed with us, and I had a wonderful time spinning and dyeing with local plants while DH walked the dog off its paws.
This is what Anne and I between had in our stash to dye with . | The Kilner jars came from a kitchen shop in Cockermouth |
Sounds like a very full and interesting event! Glad you did well!
ReplyDeleteYou have piqued my curiosity about solar dyeing & this indigo vat (sorry I cant remember the name..) I'm off to find out more
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The Michel Garcia vat is fab, isn't it? I wonder if I shall ever bother with anything different!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this! I wish I could have been there to see your demos; they all sound so interesting. I've read lots about solar dying & made my own experiments, but haven't actually seen anyone else doing it. Isn't it encouraging to see so much support & interest in the fiber arts? Keep on with the good work.
ReplyDeleteThe Fructose and Lime Vat was developed by a French dyer called Micheal Garcia and I first saw it demonstrated at the International natural Dye Conference ISEND 2011 although I have developed my own method of doing it.
ReplyDeleteIt is in my new book
Colours of the World Eco Dyeing by Helen Melvin . If you are interested email and I will send you a Pay Pal invoice for £10.50 + £1.95 P&P
one of these days I just have to make it over to woolfest! it sounds brilliant - though I'd get into trouble with decisions about what to buy (you can only carry so much:)).
ReplyDeleteif Enys would be interested, should I collect seeds from my lithospermum erythrorhizon? japanese gromwell, the japanese plant roots dye purple and for the first time I have a batch of seedlings to end up with enough roots to try dyeing.... it's been flowering for a time, and this year the seeds sprouted better than before....
OOH! Bettina yes please. We would love it. Helen
ReplyDeleteno problem, Helen, I put it on my list to collect!
ReplyDeleteI think a lot of people are frightened of indigo dyeing, thinking it's very complicated, and switch off when they hear about it! I'm sure that's why you didn't have many takers.
ReplyDeleteStill your natural inks demo bore fruit.
Lovely blog post.