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Sunday, July 21, 2013

CBAS is really cookin'!

Judy, keeper of the pots
What do you get when you mix water, a few iron nails, a roll-up of linen, bits of spinach, marigold, onion skins and slices of avocado pits? Something wonderful if you were in the garage at Judy Dominic's house in Harrison this weekend. That's where she introduced 8 of us to contact dyeing.

Useful plant materials for dyeing
Bundles ready for the pots
Simmering pots on burners in the garage and Judy's deck were readied while we tied up our bundles of both cloth and paper as tight as we could. We had covered the insides of the bundles with lots of plant materials that Judy had prepared for us to choose from. Then we crossed our fingers and pushed our sticks and packages into the chosen brew of either iron or copper water. Some of us also played around with dipping and submerging our paper and cloth samples into a pan of lovely walnut dye. In addition, there was rust dyeing in baggies with vinegar water.
Walnut dye pot
Rust packets cooking in the sun
After the labor-intensive afternoon, we left things to soak overnight. Returning on Sunday, we were all eager to see what had happened. There were no mistakes, just gorgeous and even more gorgeous results.
April looks for her bundles in the crowd
Cecie's folded paper with plant material still adhered
Lou shows off a beautiful gauze piece
Our show-and-tell was fun and helpful at the close of the workshop. We're so grateful to Judy for sharing her expertise.
Carolyn loves rust
Violet and Louise got great results, even with blueberries
Carole produced 2 beautiful silk scarves

Jeanne shows her experiment with steel wool
Another group of CBAS folks will be the lucky ones next weekend when Judy again pulls out all the pots!
Watch for another report from weekend #2.

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