Griffin Dyeworks Fiber Retreat
Spent the weekend at the Griffin Dyeworks Annual Fiber Retreat (<http://www.griffindyeworks.com/retreat/>) I didn't have time to actually dye more than a few square inches of fabric, there was so much other stuff to do.

Left Friday afternoon just after 3:00pm - prime "rush hour" ("slow time") in LA. It took just over 2 hours to get there. Leg hurt in the drive (mostly at 20 mph), but not the ice picks it had been previously.


Friday I set up chair and projects under the tent city, and pulled my luggage up the hill to the "Hill-ton" - a bunkhouse intended for young boy scouts, and clearly a home for tiny wildlife when the humans are gone. I was in time for dinner and a chocolate-tasting feast. I worked on the remaining buttonholes for the Gothic Fitted Dress (intended as underwear for the Mary of Hungary dress, if I ever finish it, and maybe as "sports bra").

Esther had designed an awesome tapestry to celebrate the Retreat, and also be a group embroidery project for the Barony of the Angels. I had drawn some of the motifs, alchymie had drawn others, and Esther had designed the project. Bjo is in the center, with a flag of the Griffin Dyeworks, and the rest has people doing various fiber preparations - shearing sheep, carding fleece, spinning on a great wheel, dying, spinning with distaff and drop spindle... and a border top and bottom. I did several threads of embroidery, but didn't get a photo of the overall.

Saturday, I took a pin weaving class in the morning. Here are two pictures: First is the setup, with attached beads, and the second where I've begun weaving. The design is by mothie (see her website, from her LJ account, for examples done using this technique).





After that, I nipped in briefly to the natural dyeing area. I really wanted to try mud dyeing. Talked briefly to Bjo, who mentioned that some peoples would do indigo first, then mud dying. So I prepped one bit of fabric for mud dyeing, and the provided canvas bag for a quick dip in the indigo pot. Must have been a fresh batch, because it wasn't in for more than a minute -- maybe not even that long -- and it came out very dark. I let it dry a bit.

Time for lunch, then teaching my class in knot-braided tassels for sweet bags. I had three students - one got it, one did not, and one got it but could not do it -- she showed me that long fingernails mean longer lengths than I had allowed in the examples I had done. I will fold that info into The Book. And I see where a handout with a picture of the hand placement would have helped the student who left. So sorry I did not teach it well enough to give her a success - I will figure out how to teach it better.

Then I took the netting class. I now have a netting needle, and I think I understand how to make a square net. The example is not quite square, and needs more practice. The mesh is also too large for what I want (a basis for lacis).



It started to rain, so there was rushing around to get things under cover. But only a few fat drops actually fell. So I went over to the dyeing area, and did some mud dye painting. The first one shows that my first impulse on getting an image doesn't work very well. I tend to work from lines, and then fill in the mass. The lines - not so good. I call this one a failed experiment (see, they don't all work) -- but an instructional one.



Then I took the dyed bag, and put a griffin (much sterner than I had intended) on one side. The use of the mud to provide mass worked much better. It is not a way I tend to work. mothie's 2 bags, with horse and unicorn, were very much defined by mass, not line, (done in mud) and they looked very good, and authentic.



Finally, I colored the areas of the design on the bag (they were pre-printed) in 4 colors of mud, over the indigo, and added a guilloche design along the base of the bag. Parts have already flaked off, and I don't know if any of it will really work over the indigo - but if it does, it should be cool. Here it is, awaiting the 2-week setting time.



That evening, there was a drum circle around the flag pole - and not all Middle Eastern. There was some, and one of the attendees from Atenveldt did an impromptu belly dance tutorial - move this, move that, get the arms moving, etc. to the beat of one of the songs. Ranger Terry did a Native American song and beat. I had a Bodhran, as did mothie, there were Middle Eastern drums, tall drums, Native American drum, and various percussions. Very nice, and maybe an hour long.

Slide show of museum stuff and archeaological sites in the evening.

Lovely, lovely time.

Today was wind down and pack up. Took 1 hour to come home -- it was all downhill, but that is probably not why it was faster.