september09

September 2009

One of the reasons that I write here less much than I did is that I am scribbling feverishly elsewhere. These days I divide my time between my studio work and research into a historic trade in natural dyes. I am studying the orchil trade. Orchil was a dye produced from many species of lichen which gave various shades across the purple range. It was used on wool and silk.

In October I will be travelling to Posnan in Poland to give a paper on the first major phase of my work at the Conference of the DHA (Dyes in History and Archaeology). You can see the programme here. In July I also gave a presentation on my work at a conference on sustainability arranged by the Worshipful Company of Dyers, who have supported me in my work.

I have been working on the research project for over 18 months. One very satisfying result is that the West Yorkshire Archive Service will shortly be taking possession, and care, of a large industrial archive relating to dye manufacture in Leeds. You can read a little about it here. I have been redacted (a nice topical word if you're a British MP) from the entire proceedings as related by the Yorkshire Evening Post; however I had more than a little to do with it.

Yorkshire Chemicals was once the fourth largest disperse dye manufacturer in the world. But the company started out with one man, James Bedford, who was apprenticed to a chemist in Briggate, Leeds, in the early 1800s. He later turned to dye manufacture and produced orchil and cudbear as well as dealing in other dyestuffs and refining oil. The enterprise, vision, skill and commitment of the Bedford family was awe-inspiring and the company's driving energy for well over 100 years.

The company went into administration in 2005. I visited Leeds in August 2008 just in time to see the last buildings being demolished on Kirkstall Road. The Kirkstall Road site had been occupied by the company for 155 years.

View of Kirkstall Road site, Leeds. Yorkshire Dyeware and Chemical Company (YDC)

View of the same site in August 2008 with demolition in progress. By then the company was known as Yorkshire Chemicals.

The Afghanistan Project

Earlier in the year my eye was caught by an announcement about a charitable group supporting embroiderers in Afghanistan and an exhibition they were arranging. I went to the site here.

In my resonse to the project I wanted to relate my life to the life of the woman who embroidered the square I chose. I knew her name was Samira. Above is an image of the piece I made, with a detail on the left. The left hand square on the hanging is Samira's and the one on the right is mine (the @ symbol) which was an attempt to sum up the the lifestyle of my own daughter.

I only used scraps from my own projects, including indigo dyed silks and scarves that had had the scissor treatment.

Berrimilla

On an extended trip to Lisbon this month is my brother Alex plus Pete, and a boat called Berrimilla. If you have been visiting here for a while you may well know about the previous journeys of Berrimilla which included a jaunt around Cape Horn and an outing through the North West Passage to buy an ice cream. They are currently on their way home to Australia but suffering plagues of Biblical proportions, hence the stay in Lisbon to fix generator, engine and tooth.

You can follow their new wanderings here.

I thoroughly recommend the Youtube video here but be warned: that jolly shanty is one of those tunes you can't stop whistling and eventually it drives everyone mad. Thanks to Paul and Pauline of Falmouth Photos for a wonderful record of Berri's departure. Will they go to Lisbon to film the next one??