Hello everyone. I've relatively recently returned from my first solo camping trip to the beautiful Northwest, with a destination of Lopez Island and three magical days at my second workshop with India Flint. We made wayfarers' wonder jackets using bits and pieces of other clothing items which we reassembled to make our unique garments! What fun, and challenging too. I loved stretching my mind to embrace the concepts of sleeves becoming pockets and shirts being transformed into pinafores.
This is the beginning of my jacket.
This is the beginning of my jacket.
And this is how it's been progressing since coming home. I will dye it once construction is done.
It was so much fun to do communal dyeing again:
India is very patient and full of interesting ideas and poems. It was a most congenial group of women who gathered to work in Patsy's beautiful garden studio. Christi did a first rate job of organizing everything so all went smoothly. Patsy, Christi and India created the most delicious lunches for us. Oh goodness...that's what it all was: Goodness. Great Goodness.
There also was opportunity to be gastronomically delighted by... guess what...wild mushrooms. I was a bit nervous but ultimately trusted the experts and found these "shaggy manes" to be delicious!
I visited two friends from the workshop in Seattle on the way home. We watched the eclipse together and opened some more more bundles from the workshop. Magic.
So now I'm home and have been gathering leaves from our parched environment and have bundled them up and dyed this old shirt. I used marigolds, eucalyptus, rose leaves and apple leaves in a stainless steel pot, with some iron bits and a little bit of copper. Some of the marigold petals are still on there. The cloth is still wet so looks a bit brighter than it will later. I've never gotten such golden hues before. I wonder if it could be due to the drought somehow.
Gilly meanwhile has found a pair of pink sunglasses, kind of like mine, except they are more edible!
Next I am going to tell you about a wonderful show I visited on the way to the workshop, so stay tuned. xoxo, ~s.
your shirt is GLORIOUS!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteGrace, I have it on right now. I feel all aglow! And I especially love that all these patterns and colors come from the block I live on and my own very small backyard.
Deletesounds like the rest of your trip went well . how were your camp grounds in canada ? i love the marigold shirt !
ReplyDeletei am still thinking about dyeing my apron .... i think i will do some trial runs 1st ( :
Hi Kathy! I only spent one day in Canada, and there wasn't time for visiting, except for the Butchart gardens...oh glory! But the campground was wonderful. Very quiet, friendly, with a good view of that large moon rising...the day before the eclipse.
DeleteThis shirt was a trial run, just to get reacquainted with the process...and fall in love with it all over again. I still have lots of work to do on my jacket before it goes into the pot. I look forward to seeing yours!
I love your wayfarer wonder jacket (the name alone is so great) and the shirt is just grand. What an adventure -- camping alone -- you are a brave woman, Suzanne! xoxxo
ReplyDeleteHi Peggy...this season of dyeing is very satisfying, and I think I am going to be bolder about overdyeing more of my clothes. It makes them new again and it is such an adventure.
DeleteWell, I've been camping before, but not by myself...what I had missed before was a sense of enjoyment, so that's what I was after...going at my own pace, not worrying about cooking (my stove didn't work anyway). I felt pretty safe in the places I chose, although afterward I did hear some tales of skunks and rattlesnakes, but I was pretty careful and didn't have close encounters with scary beasts. One morning I did wake up to a chorus of many many woodpeckers singing their wake-up song! That was lovely.
wow! i've not been over of late, but it's grand to read your news. i love this post and i especially love the egret...is there more story with that beauty?
ReplyDeleteHi Velma! Thanks! There is a story that goes with the egret...it was an interaction between three birds and a crab. I'm determined to make it into book #2, but am still fiddling around with the format...I want it to be embroidery, but maybe just outlines...more later!
Deletelucky you, a workshop with India! and such fantastic results, looking forward to seeing the jacket sewn and dyed
ReplyDelete