Flower Power

At our Embroiderer's Guild on Friday evening we were treated to a fascinating talk by Linda Rudkin. On a visit to see the Bayeux Tapestry Linda was inspired by the vibrancy of the colours of the wools used for the embroidery and decided to investigate the types of natural dyes that might have been used. This has led to some wonderful work and fabulous discoveries which she very generously shared with us.

She was selling some of the plant materials she uses among which were these Woad seeds. Of course I couldn't resist and now plan on growing Woad this year... not to paint myself like the tribes of Boudicca but to produce a blue dye for fabrics and threads. Watch this space!

Linda was also running a workshop for the Guild on Saturday on "Flower Pounding". I was in Derbyshire on Saturday giving a talk to the Trent and Erewash Valley branch of the EG so I couldn't attend the class but Linda told us enough about the technique for me to give it a try and it was such fun I thought you might like to try too!

1. First select your plant material.

2. Pick the specimens you wish to use and arrange on a piece of white cotton.

3. Secure and cover with masking tape.

4. Turn the cotton over, place on a bread board and (this is the bit I liked) bash with a hammer.

5. As you bash you can start to see the plant dye being released on to the cotton.

6. When you've bashed enough, turn the cotton over and remove the masking tape.

7. And as if by magic... a perfect print of your flowers.

8. Which you can then stitch, paint or embellish to your heart's content.

9. And then turn into a Mother's Day card!

I've spent a lovely day with my Mum, Dad, Brother, his wife and the rest of the family plus two dogs. Lots of eating and drinking as usual! Hope you've had a lovely day too!