The last time I updated this page it was freezing here in the South West of England. Now the indigo seedlings are three weeks old and I have started my annual battle with the sparrows. Virtue, it seems, is not its own reward. Having fed our house sparrows all through the hard winter they are now nesting and descending on my cosmos plants, stripping off the outer pith or tweaking off the top pair of leaves. So I have to protect them with nets, or a collar made from a yoghurt pot - that's the cosmos, not the sparrows. Once they are big plants, they are safe. Fortunately sparrows don't seem to like eating indigo seedlings. I have grown it (Persicaria tinctoria - used to be known as Polygonum tinctorium) for several years now without a sparrow problem. I have them in pots still but will plant them out soon.
Indigo seedlings: about a week after planting
ISEND at La Rochelle : Easter 2011
One of the most exciting gatherings I have ever attended was last month's ISEND (International Symposium and Exhibition of Natural Dyes) at La Rochelle, France. This started on Easter Sunday and continued through the week. Nearly 60 countries were represented by over 400 delegates. Papers covered natural dye history; pure chemistry; development of chemistry, machinery and technology in commercial applications; educational projects; natural dyes in high-end fashion etc. There were exhibitions, demonstrations, workshops and excursions. Even though the conference is finished, there is a lot to learn from the ISEND website which is still very much alive. The video interviews are very interesting. Much more about my ISEND experiences, and many images, here.
Teaching
I have taught at Denman College and West Dean this year and have more courses scheduled for the end of 2011 and in 2012. For information, follow the website links for the colleges. Details are also listed further down the page.
I taught my natural dyes course at Denman and students produced samples on silk and wool with many overdyes (see below). Each student also dyed their own silk scarf .
At West Dean I taught a course on scarves with acid dyes and wax-resist, which I'll repeat next year. And at Dillington House in the autumn I'm offering a natural dyes course similar, but not identical, to the one I teach at Denman.
Samples on silk and wool using weld, cochineal, madder and indigo
The
commercial orchil trade was wholly unsustainable. Shown above is orchil-dyed
wool with a sample of Roccella gracilis.
My studies into the orchil trade have helped me to understand some of the problems of sustainability. An ongoing personal investigation into my work practice and its effects can be seen here.
Shoko Yade of NPO Earth Network, with her poster on katazome at ISEND. We were poster-neighbours. I presented a poster on my research into the orchil trade. Read more about my trip to ISEND in La Rochelle here
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