Maine Event - dinner and a show (and tell)

One of the best parts of our event is having dinner together followed by show and tell.  I had it catered for the first 2 years but the second year was awful so I decided to try to make Lasagna. Last year it was still cold so I left it in the oven at 450 for an additional hour. This year I baked it for two hours but it really wasn't hot enough. Next year a new menu however ALWAYS finished with my special carrot cake.

This picture is for Palette. I'm sure she would love to dive into this frosting!!

Room for fifteen.

Here comes the lasagna.

Judy's work

Lisa's work

Melinda's Spirit Dolls

Sue's work

Paulette's work

Indigo dyed stick woman with a felted moon

 My work

We all had such a great night. Now some sleep.

Thanks for reading,
Beth

Maine Event day two

I used to read a blog by Melody Johnson. She said her middle name was "all color, all the time". I  have adopted her middle name. I love color. This was the day I had been looking forward to enjoying.

We used 45 X 45 pieces of pre-soaked fabric either plant fibers or silk and silk screens to create one of a kind designs. Using thickened MX dyes we covered our fabrics with a selection of fourteen different silk screens, each with a different graphic design.

We used the thickened dyes to turn our yardage into fabulous fabric.

If you hang them on the line to dry they will flap around and the dye will get all over the place. I found (by accident) that the warm asphalt will dry the dye soaked fabric in 30 - 60 minutes.

The Maine Event day one

The first day of the Maine Event is the same format each year. We call it all day dyeing and by the end of the day my feet were dying. We did low water immersion in bags and plastic bins, acid dyeing in my microwave, and the EVER popular indigo vat using shibori and batik with both MX dyes and indigo.

A bit more about the format of the three day event. On day two, you can continue to dye with MX, acid or indigo. I made a new vat of three gallons of indigo EACH day. I am thrilled to say they were used up - no indigo left in the bucket - as opposed to exhausted - no longer able to dye, expired. This is my OLD recipe and we got DARK indigo dyes with 5 to 10 seconds in the vat and it remained dark all day. Since each day is a different techniques, participants can be doing work using the techniques and materials on day three from all three days. I think you get what I'm saying. Just do more of what you are interested in doing.

Just warming up.

Felted Icelandic merino collar/shawl. FABULOUS

Above and below are the "before" pics of a weak indigo batik dye project with the wax left in.

This is the "after" and they dried just as dark as in this photo.

Three acid dyed hanks

We like hanging things in the trees to dry. So much more beautiful than a clothes line.

Some last minute pre-soaked fabrics along with some MX dyes.

INDIGO

Obviously after consuming nine gallons of indigo, there were many pieces done including shibori, hats. wool in as many formats as you can imagine. We must have been in a frenzy not to have gotten more photos.

A cotton shopping bag just ASKING to get dyed!!

The Maine Event preparation

This is the barest of beginnings for the event. What is not pictured here are the initial nine bottles of dye concentrate and initial nine 16 oz. cups of thickened dye we used. We also used over the weekend a total of 3 gallons of print paste (clear). However, this is the very beginning.........

Water for making our MX dye solutions from the concentrate I mixed up (some colors more than once)

First of three 3 gallon pails of soda ash. Some used for pre-soaking although most people came with their fabric already prepared. Some didn't have soda ash and some had never prepared and soaked fabric before. Yes, we had one dye "virgin". She will never be the same again (smile)

The beginning of pre-soaked fabric drying.

These three screens had either black or heavily dried print paste from our "experiments" and needed washing.

Three padded 4' X 8' printing tables.

 The Art Greenhouse before the deluge.

Waiting for the crowd.