saori workshop fun

On the weekend 12 luck weavers had a weekend workshop with Kaz Madigan. She is a saori weaving teacher, saori is a type of freeform japanese weaving. It was so much fun as we got to use all types of different yarns, we were allowed to break weaving rules and focus much more on the createing rather than the preciseness of the work. Here are some of the pieces created by the group.

And here is Kaz, nice and cozy next to the fire.

Di presented Joy with a lovely bunch of flowers for letting us all use her wonderful studio space at Nandroya studios and vineyard in Margate. It is always a pleasure to have a workshop in such beautiful surrounding and with a treasure like Joy as the host.

natural dyeing day with japanese visitors

 Recently I spent the day At Nandroya Studio with a group of Japanese visiting craft ladies. Joy had prepared a workshop on natural dyes from Tasmania. We used native cherry with  three different mordents. These were alum, copper and iron.

 Joy had even created a wonderful sample card . It was a great day and a lot was learnt by everyone. Joy has such fantastic knowledge about dyes and weaving and is a fantastic host and teacher.

sun dye workshop

I went to a workshop on using sun dyes. Lisa Febey showed us what sun dyes were and how they can be used. Everyone fell in love with Lisa's beautiful work. She guided us beginners through the process and explained the ways in which we could turn a plain piece of cloth into a wonder to behold. Everyone rushed off to their work and dyes were painted, resists and plant pieces were placed over the material and then we let the sun do its magic. Anyone wanting some more info on sun dyes you can go to Lisa Waltons blog dyed and gone to heaven . She is such an inspiration when it comes to all things fabric related.
Nandroya studios was such a great space for our day of fun that I have to say a special thankyou to Joy for the use of her space nestled amongst their vineyard.   Stay tuned for my results in the next post.