August Workshop with India Flint - Day Two

Day Two brought the opening of new bundles set into the dyepot at the end of our first day.  

 The next ones we opened, just blew us away.  So amazing.

 Each one so unique.

 No disappointments.  All just beautiful!

Later in the morning, we embarked upon an exploratory walk through Darcy's neighborhood and into a little wooded area filled with Eucalyptus trees.  Along the way, we stopped, and India identified plants and we gathered some windfall leaves for our next dyepot.

 A group of fennel plants.

 Towards the end of the afternoon, we opened a new batch of bundles.

 They just seem to keep getting better with every dyepot.

 This one is mine.  Eucalyptus leaves imprinted on watercolor paper.

 The coffee filter on which I stitched silk, appliques and embroidered.

 Stitching on rice paper.

At the end of the afternoon, new bundles went into the dyepots and we went off to dinner.  After dinner, an evening stroll along the beach in glorious Santa Barbara.  

We came upon a drum circle of about 20 drummers with all types of drums and with a serious beat that you could feel to your core.  It was mesmerizing ---  especially to a couple of wild dancers.

 Some cool architecture.

And where is all this stitching and dyeing going to end up?  We asked ourselves this question at the end of the day, but we decided we were happy not knowing -- we loved that we were on a journey of anticipation.  Day Three coming up.

August Workshop with India Flint - Day One

At the beginning of August, my friend Margie and I ventured north to Santa Barbara to take part in a three-day workshop with artist/author India Flint from Australia.  The workshop was entitled "The Wayfayer's Wanderbook".  India is the author of two books on eco-printing -- creating prints and color on cloth and paper with natural materials:  "Eco Colour" and "Second Skin".  Darcy Ritzau -- who is an absolute dear -- graciously hosted this wonderful and amazing workshop in her Goleta home where she has a beautiful  artist's studio.  We can't thank you enough, Darcy, for bringing India to the West Coast.

I was very happy to see two of our other good friends at India's workshop, Debbie and Randy, both teachers from our Orange County area.  In all, there were about 12  students.

On the first day, we got right into it.  India provided each of us a piece of paper and had us crush it into a ball to soften it and then we stitched on it and repaired any tears on the edges.

We then folded our paper in a unique way and slipped leaves and flowers in between the folds and bound it before placing our little bundle in the dyepot, which had been brewing all the while we were stitching.  Eucalyptus leaves, of course.

 Dyepot and bundles ready to simmer.

 Our first bundles fresh from the dyepot -- ready to be opened.

 We all gathered around on the grass in anticipation as India shows us how to open the bundles.

 Carefully indeed -- as the magic is unveiled.

 So simple yet so beautiful.

 Here is my opened bundle.

 We displayed everyone's opened bundle on the grass and stood back with amazement.

 Lovely and Amazing!!  We were all having the best time.

While our first bundles were simmering, we embarked upon our next project.  India gave us each an envelope containing pieces of various fabrics, mostly silks.  We spent our time stitching these fabrics to a piece of paper.  

Stitching included a bit of embroidery, too.

After making our little bundles, they were placed in the dyepot to be attended to by India and Darcy -- a little something to look forward to in the morning on Day Two of our workshop. With Day One behind us and an impending rainstorm, Margie and I set off to our Santa Barbara hotel and then to find a place for dinner.  

On foot and armed with an umbrella, we set off to State Street and soon discovered that it was a wild crowd, confetti all over the streets and sidewalks and hordes of people celebrating Fiesta Days -- an event to be avoided we decided.  We managed to duck off State Street and found a nice little Mediterranean restaurant on a side street and bypassed all of the "festivities".  

We had a great dinner at Zaytoon but passed on having a dessert hookah -- not really our style -- and then made our way back to our hotel room in the on again, off again light rain showers. Before having left Darcy's studio, one of the participants handed everyone a gigantic industrial coffee filter.  We spent the whole rest of our evening stitching on our coffee filters so that we could put them in the dyepot the next day.

Suffice it to say, we were ready for our next adventurous day with India.

IT'S AUTUMN

Well, it creeped up on me.  Autumn has arrived.  We took our last walk of the Summer on the San Clemente beach trail on Friday night.

For the past couple of weeks, we have had unbearably hot weather 90's to over 100 on a couple of days.  In fact, yesterday on the first day of Fall, it was in the mid-90's. I am worn out from the heat and am really looking forward to a trip with my friend, Michelle, to Santa Fe, Chimayo and Taos on October 2nd.  This is our annual trip to the Taos Wool Festival and a week of relaxation and stitching and knitting.  

I have been doing a lot of spinning lately -- and knitting -- tucked inside away from the heat.  This is one of Inglenook Fibers' batts that I plied with one of my handpainted rovings.

These two blue skeins were each spun using one of Blarney Yarns rovings and one of mine plied together.  I am using these two yarns in a shawl that I have almost completed -- the "Sakura" lace shawl by Leila Raabe from Brooklyn Tweed.

Another one of my adventures during the summer was attending Convergence -- the conference of the Handweavers' Guild of America.  Convergence was held at the Long Beach Convention Center this year.  How could I not go.  I was very excited to take a felting class with the amazing felt artist, Lisa Klakulak.  My friend, Pam, and I stayed at a hotel right across from the Convention Center. 

And a block away from the Convention Center was a beautiful little marina with lots of restaurants and walkways.

 It was nice to take a long walk over to Shoreline Park in the evening after dinner.

 A view back up towards the Convention Center from Pine Street Pier.  

My class with Lisa Klakulak was wonderful.  We made small felted vessels and each students' vessel was unique.  I learned so much more about felting and loved the class. Would take another class with Lisa in a heartbeat.

My vessel is the one up front -- chartreuse.  

That's all for now.  Next summer adventure -- Wayfayer's Wanderbook with the amazing India Flint.