Malvern Hills Summer School

Talk about deadline coming up fast! Not only is Helf Gelf very much on the horizon but so is my regular teaching stint at Malvern Hills Summer School - actually now called the South Worcestershire College. So between making landscapes I am  making samples for the Felt and Fabric Tote Bags ( Thursday  16th of August )  and of course packs). Other workshops are  Postcards which is felt landscapes and machine embroidery   (Wednesday 15th August) and Eco Dyeing. ( Friday 17th August)
These are some of the things I shall be doing.

Naturally dyed and patterned  Eco Silks  in the Eco Dyeing workshop

Samples for the Felt and Fabric Tote bags

 Small Landsape ( Night Sea 2)  in Postcards

Another picture for Helfa Gelf

Rough Sea 4 naturally dyed felt and just  a tiny bit of machine stitch-unusal for me as there is often  a lot in my picures .   Referring back to my previous  posts on mounts this is in an antique white mount and a silver metallic frame. 

Mounting and Framing Pictures.

When you have finished a picture you then have to get it framed.  This can make all the difference to a picture.  The wrong coloured mount and wrong frame can ruin a picture. One of the things that drives me mad are people who frame all their work in identical frames. Usually bland pale wood . Or  come to think of it even worse in the horrible boxy Ikea frames. Even  worse than that are those poor souls who tell you in triumph. " I have hardly spent anything on framing!  I just go the charity shop find a frame and put my picture in".  And one can only gaze in horror at some poor little piece of textile art stuffed into an incongrous frame nd wilting in front of your eyes. Once you have seen decent framing you really start to notice frames

New Pictures for Helfa Gelf

I love creating landscapes - but I need deadlines to really get me going.  One is coming up very fast over the horizon Helfa Gelf 2012, the largest open studio event in North Wales .

here is one of my pictures that I have just completed and sent off to my framers.
"Stone Wall Naturally Dyed Felt and Machine Stitch ".

As well as getting pictures ready I also have to think what I shall demonstrate as people come round visiting my studio. I have tried landsape production  but just can't do it as I really need to ocncentrate so need something I can talk about and do quite easily.

One year I had a fermented indigo vat with a large sign on it saying fermented indigo vat RATHER SMELLY.  I turned round to see a visitor with his head in the vat taking a long sniff.  " I am an archeologist " he said "and just wanted to know what it smelt like"

Dye Garden in July

The steady rain over the last month - highest rainfall in June since records began- has been
 enjoyed by the dye plants!
Gensita tinctoria
Yarrow 
Dyers chamomile Anthemis tinctoria ( the bright orange flowers are californian poppies - not a dye plant  but I do have a few other things apart form dye plants!  ( and you can see a white rose behind the bear!)

Natural Dye and Felt Workshops in the Dye Garden at Blaen Wern North Wales workshops and

Colours from the Dye Garden

&

Designing with Felt & Stitch

A series of linked workshops

Spring 2012-Winter 2013

with

Anne Campbell & Helen Melvin

Spend a Saturday dyeing prefelts and yarns with natural dyes with Helen as tutor. Spend a Sunday stitching and felting with Anne exploiting the potential of pre-felts, a fine soft malleable pure merino fabric

• Learn the Techniques of Natural Dyeing
• Create experimental and unique felts

• Take workshops together or singly .
• Mix and match dyeing and felting days.

The Medieval Dye Pot May 19^{th &} Free Form Patchwork Felt May 20^th

Eco Dyeing July28th Bags & Book Covers & Textured Pieces July 29^th

Dyeing The Blues October 13^th&Mark Making in Blues October 14th

The Dyes of the World February 23rd 2013 & Felted Shapes and Patterns February 24th

Interested? Contact Helen Melvin on 01745 710507

or

http://www.fieryfelts.co.uk/index.php?option=categories&category_id=418622&category=Workshops%20Spring%202012-Winter%202013

helenmelvin@fieryfelts.co.uk

www.fieryfelts.co.uk
http://growingcolour.blogspot.com/

Dyes from Winter garden 2 : an array of yellows.

The dye plants I had in the garden were Genista tinctoria, Weld ( leaves) Dyers Chamomile and Tansy. I picked what  I had,

 

 ' 

I cut the plant materials up, soaked overnight added premordanted fibres and heated all of them  slowly  in  a large pan

From left to right Dyers Chamomile Gensita tinctoria, Tansy and Weld

The sunny result-very nice to have in the winter.  

As there is only so much yellow a girl can have I put rusty nails into the Genista tinctoria and tansy but in fact these only became a bronze/gold.(Top row), the acid yellow of the weld leaves stands out in the middle and in the fluff of alpaca to the right.  There was so much colour in the dyers chamomile that I repeated it and got almost  as good a colour the second time ( Alpaca on left hand side)

The alpaca I stuffed into a fermentation indigo vat- so now a truly eco green!