DYES IN DITCHLING

Guest blog post by Jenny Dean From 3 – 7 April, Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft will be hosting a five day workshop, “Following in the Footsteps of Ethel Mairet”. In the picturesque village of Ditchling, students will learn to spin, weave and dye with a team of experts tracing the practice of Ethel Mairet, “the mother of hand-weaving”. In the first of three guest blog posts, expert natural dyer Jenny Dean delves into the dyes that students can look forward to working with… Ethel Mairet’s importance lies particularly in her inspiration as a teacher. In her book “Vegetable Dyes” she follows in the tradition of earlier professional dyers, imparting knowledge in order to encourage dyers to aim for the highest standards. Her comments give an insight into the working methods of the professional dyer in the early 20th century, and continue to inspire today’s natural dyers. Although “Vegetable Dyes” covers many sources of dye colour, Ethel Mairet herself used mainly the classic dyes; madder, weld, cochineal and indigo. These remain the most reliable dyes today, and are what I recommend to dyers who wish to be sure of consistently good results in a wide range of achievable shades and tones.   Although some of the recipes in “Vegetable Dyes’’ require the use of chemicals that are no longer recommended, many recipes are still relevant. While some may appear rather complicated, many are relatively straightforward (at least they are when you adapt the quantities for smaller weights of fibres), such as catechu stone drab and pink with cochineal for wool. A wonderful and ever-increasing array of dyed skeins form part of the current Ethel Mairet exhibition at Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft. These have been dyed by dyers from many parts of the world. This collection will remain a unique and lasting tribute to a remarkable weaver and dyer, who spent most of her working life in Ditchling, but whose influence was far-reaching. I am sure students will share my love of Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft and I am really looking forward to leading a masterclass in such a very special venue. “Following in the Footsteps of Ethel Mairet” 3 - 7 April, £895  Hosted by Jenny Dean, Dawn Wiley, Jenny Kilbride, Steve Kennet and Donna Steele For more information click here, and to reserve your place click here   Images courtesy of Temaricious and Susan Cropper of Loop Knitting Shop, London https://temaricious.com/ http://www.loopknittingshop.com/ http://www.ditchlingmuseumartcraft.org.uk/product/following-footsteps-ethel-mairet-natural-dyeing-spinning-weaving-masterclass-ditchling-museum-art-craft/