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Wednesday 29 July 2009

Rust Dyeing with Myfanwy Hart


My local Embroiderers Guild is a very lively and vibrant group.We seem to be bucking the trend and attracting new members all the time. They organise excellent speakers once a month and I am very disapointed that due to the hours I have been working I am not able to get to many monthly meetings any more. But I am able to get to the workshops as they are on a Saturday. The latest one was Rust Dyeing with Myfanwy Hart.
Myfanwy is one of the lovely ladies in the Boomers group over on etsy and we had met briefly at the Cottenham show.
I had extracted a few pieces of rusting metal from hubby and his garage.Not that easy to find as he is all about making sure that things don't rust.
After cleaning up the rusty items they were wrapped up in fabric and we added either salt water or vinegar water to accelerate the process. Some parcels had a tea bag or strong tea added as the tannin also has an effect on the cloth when combined with the rusting process.
These were then left overnight before being dried off and washed and ironed.
So another interesting washing line.Bit smelly though.
Myfanwy also bought hubby and shop along so there was time for a few purchases of delicious threads.
The picture shows the resulting pieces of fabric.Not quite sure what will become of them but a few ideas are bubbling under.
Thanks for a fun and interesting day Myfanwy.

Friday 17 July 2009

Sutton Hoo




Recently visited Sutton Hoo. Have been meaning to get there for some time but as it happens Fen Edge Textiles were exhibiting there and my friends Nickie and Sharne are members of this group.
Hubby wanted to go to so it was a nice trip out together.
Sutton Hoo itself was interesting, in parts. There really is little to see there apart from a few humps where the burials were.The exhibition was very interesting but there are virtually none of the original artefacts there as they are all in the British Museum (I think)
Anyway we decided to test ourselves and did the long walk round the whole of the site.
Much further than I have walked in some time but the weather was glorious so it was most enjoyable.