Category Archives: workshops

Natural Dye Workshop with Michele Wipplinger

I have been off line so long you all must think I drowned in all of the spring rains I was complaining of!  It has been a summer devoted more to design than to art, and I write slightly more frequently about that work on my other blog, http://lfntextiles.blogspot.com. However, with a show scheduled at Patina Gallery in Santa Fe this October I am beginning to weave again in earnest and will begin posting about that soon. 

Earlier in June, however, we did have the natural dye workshop with Michele Wipplinger that I had posted about.  It was fascinating to be able to produce such a broad range of colors from her natural dye extracts.  We had participants from New York, Nepal, and Senegal, Docey Lewis having brought in colleagues from these places to catch up on dye technology.  Keith Recker, editor in chief of Hand/Eye magazine was among us too.  We worked in the lovely little Sarah Campbell Blaffer pottery studio in New Harmony, well lit and surprisingly well suited to our task.  We had some glorious cool sunny days and were able to spread out yarns out under a shade tree to dry.  And I want to point out the great fashion statement in the long red & yellow gloves!

  

Dyeing as if the Earth Mattered with Michele Wipplinger

I am so lucky to live in this marvelous, creative and inspired Utopian community.  We are graced with restaurants, art galleries, antique shops, world class architecture, important social history, a fine Inn, and TWO textile designers, among our 900 residents.  Docey Lewis and myself have a great time sitting around coming up with creative ideas for spreading our textile wealth, and our latest idea is to begin a series of textile-based workshops led by prominent artists to bring new visitors to our magical town.

The first workshop will feature reknowned dyer Michele Wipplinger of Earthues.  Here’s the information, or you can go online to http://naturaldyeworkshopnewharmony.blogspot.com

Where:      Sara Campbell Blaffer Potter’s House, New Harmony, Indiana

Cost:  $500 ( includes tuition and materials fee); $680 (includes tuition, materials fee, and 3 nights double-occupancy + breakfast at the New Harmony Inn)

This workshop focuses on an ecological approach to natural dyeing by creating multiple color combinations in one dyebath. Using diverse fiber types such as wool, silk and cellulose substrates, in combination with Earthues’ natural dye extracts, four artful color combinations are possible, including an indigo overdye. This method uses one dye pot per team of two and two indigo vats.  From this simple, low water and low heat method, a multitude of hues emerge, creating a unique and diverse color palette.

Sponsor: New Harmony Artists Guild

Contact:  Docey Lewis doceyDLD@aol.com 812-682-3868 or
Laura Nicholson lfntextiles@sbcglobal.net 812-781-1348

Register online: http://naturaldyeworkshopnewharmony.blogspot.com/

For room reservations contact the New Harmony Inn  http://www.newharmonyinn.com/

T: 800-782-8605  (Six double rooms have been reserved. Mention Natural Dye Workshop)

This workshop is limited to the first 15 registrants.

Make checks payable to: New Harmony Artists Guild  

Mail to: Docey Lewis, Workshop Coordinator
             P.O. Box 6
             New Harmony, Indiana 47631

more from colloquy 2007






I was writing this morning about Bhakti Ziek’s upcoming visit, and her participation in Colloquy 2009 at St. Meinrad Archabbey in Indiana. Here are a few photos I took two years ago when Br. Kim Malloy took our group into the vestry to examine some of the real treasury of vestments, old and new, collected there. I won’t go into detail about the fabric constructions; some are brocaded, some are embroidered, some are perhaps lampas or takete. Bhakti would know!
The photo of Br. Kim is in the area with the more contemporary vestments, all hand woven.

Bhakti Ziek


My very dear friend, Bhakti Ziek, is coming to visit me here in a couple of weeks, her second trip to New Harmony. A consummate weaver, and a renowned teacher, Bhakti will be the featured speaker at the upcoming Weaver’s Colloquy at St Meinrad Archabbey, in nearby St Meinrad IN.

Colloquy originated with a group of complex weavers in Mineral Point, Wisconsin, where they met regularly to converse about their passion for weaving and the tools of weaving. Eventually they moved the meetings down to St Meinrad, where Brother Kim Malloy, a textile enthusiast and quite a raconteur, hosts everyone for a week in its beautiful surroundings in Southern Indiana. When I presented there two years ago, Br. Kim delighted us with several hours spent poring over the jaw-droppingly elaborate textiles in the vestry, an experience I will not soon forget.

Bhakti currently lives in Randolph, Vermont, where she weaves in a beautiful old house she shares with her husband, Mark Goodwin, a formidably talented sculptor. Bhakti takes in students for advanced tutorials in dobby and jacquard weaving. She keeps a TC1 loom along with various other hand & dobby looms in her studio.

Colloquy 2009

October 12-15, 2009
St. Meinrad Archabby, IN
Bhakti Ziek will be the
featured presenter
Contact Kathy O’Neal for
info: kfoneal@sbcglobal.net
or call 219-938-2936

Bhakti Ziek and Alice Schlein’s book,
The Woven Pixel: Designing for Jacquard and Dobby Looms Using Photoshop ©

Co-authored by Alice Schlein and Bhakti Ziek. 362 pages, many illustrations. Includes a CD with over 1400 weave structures.

(shown here, 2 lampas weavings by Bhakti Ziek, “Chaos & Order 3” and “Natural Dyes 2”; Bhakti weaving at her TC-1 loom, and a drawing by Mark Goodwin. Note the relationship to Bhakti’s weavings!)