It's a while since I blogged but things have been busy. I went on my second dying course near Biella. Casa Clementina is a new initative where a young Italian couple invite textile experts to teach weaving and dying (natural dying only!)
I had fun on the first course creating a rainbow colour card using dried plants mainly. Stefano, Sissi's wife ran the course and she produced delicious meals.
Sabina my friend came on the second indigo course run by Axel Becker (axelfred@online.no) from Norway. There were so many of us that I did'nt get to dye that much so came away with a couple of bottles to experiment at home! I hope as I said in earlier blogs to make a scarf range. This seems like a good start.
On Axel's course we made our own blocks and stencils. We also learnt to make the paste which has to dry for 3 weeks before dying it with the indigo. It looks green at first then it leaves white where it has resisted the dye.
Biella is only 2 hours away and is Italy's home to cashmere. The area was once booming but now like in the rest of Northern Italy textile factories stand empty. However the famous biscuits with chocolate are still going strong..chocolate helps any way with 'depression'!