Monday, September 10, 2012

Dyed and Gone to Heaven

I returned yesterday afternoon from my five day work shop with Jan Myers-Newbury, Shibori Fabrics for Quilting at the Schweinfurth Art Center in Auburn, NY in the beautiful Finger Lakes region.

Before I show you any of the fabrics I made I want to tell you about the facilities.  It was the most amazing workspace, certainly the best that I had ever been in.

Remember to click on any picture for a bigger view of all.



First there was a huge "dry" workspace where we prepared our fabrics and did our designing. We each had a six foot worktable with two big design walls apiece and plenty of space between tables.


Another view of the dry area.  Notice the scrumtious colors painted on the walls.



Here's Paula, my most delightful travel companion and roommate, taking a break at her table in front of her design wall. We had so much fun together!




This is a partial view of the "wet" studio.  There were six stainless steel deep sinks, two low floor sinks for emptying big pails, two washers and dryers, several tables for working and a floor that could get wet and messy.  And it did! That's Jan on the left giving advice to Ruth.



Here we are stirring those pots, making sure the dye got evenly distributed on the fabric wrapped on poles and/or folded and clamped. The washers and dryers were in that alcove where Jan is standing.

Then there was another room with ironing boards and irons set up.  

I made a fair amount of fabric, but more important is the fact that I learned so much.  This was not just pole wrapping, although we did a lot of that, but also clamping, stitch resist, and underpainting. Jan was a fabulous teacher and if you ever get a chance to take a class or workshop, please do, you won't regret it.  I'll post again showing some of the results, so please come back.


3 comments:

Linda M said...

What a fabulous work space. Was it designed just for classes?

Norma Schlager said...

I'm sure it was. There was also a big storage room and when the door was open I peeked inside. There were 32 (I counted ) ironing boards in a big rack and a many, many six foot tables

Natalya Khorover Aikens said...

oh what fun you had!