Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Woad is Me!




What a day we had this past Saturday - our Woad Workshop in Elysian Park was as magical as I could have hoped for!
Friday was a different story! I was a little worried, after Denise, our master dyer, had arrived in Los Angeles from France, called me and said pray for me - "pray for you?" - "no", she said, "pray for the mother vat." It turns out, a woad vat does not just appear with a bit of powdered blue dye and a bucket of water. Denise arrived at my kitchen early Friday morning and for the next six hours, she and JZ performed alchemy like I have not seen before! A little bit of this, a little bit of that, a bunch of gurgling in old pots, oh and where's the powdered lime wash? A few frantic runs to the hardware store, paint store and a building supply store and, voila! The mother vat was finished! What a vat it was - I hadn't seen such depth to the color blue since I began woading two summers ago!
Saturday was meant to rain, but the clouds parted ways and the sun shone throughout the day! We had over 1,000 feet of laundry line hung in the park and we dyed over 500 pieces of material - including skeins of wool, linen pants, hankerchiefs and shoes! Everyone learned something new and we all felt a kinship towards each other that one only gets with spending five hours in a field together. Thank you Denise for coming and thank you to all of the students who took a chance and signed up for our very first Woad Workshop - we're ready starting to plan the next one - are you coming??

11 comments:

Laura @ 52 FLEA said...

Tremendous! Such gorgeous blues...glad it all worked out!
:)

Lisa Milam said...

yay!! this brings back fond memories of auty 2 summers ago! so glad it was a huge success.

Lynda said...

A wonderful, magical day indeed! I can't thank you enough for the opportunity to turn my hands blue, meet other like-minded folks and fall in love with a plant.

Thank you Kaari, Denise, Miriam and all the others who helped. The Woad Workshop rocked!! I'll definitely be back for more.

Anonymous said...

Oh yes, please yes, I'll be there for Ode To Woad ll ... or is that 201... deux?
Fabulous! I'm woad blue with envy... So happy all went well in the bath... OX, Hol

miapatagonia said...

I'm woad-crazy now! Thank you Denise Lambert and daughter Miriam, Kaari, the Meng clan, French General staff and fellow dyers for the most enjoyable and creative Saturday ever! I'm already thinking Gascony blue for next year!

Floss said...

Stinky, isnt'it? But so well worth the result. I went to a woad workshop with a French dyer from the Pyreneese a few years ago and was wearing my T-shirt with pride just the other day! Your workshop looks fantastic - congratulations! I wish I could have been there, too.

life in red shoes said...

Oh my, the most yummy colors of blue!
Have you ever read about Tasha Tudor brewd indigo?
Very interesting.

Vintage Style Downunder said...

What is woad?? (sorry for the lack of knowledge!!)...but ..WOW!! LOVE that blue...TOTALLY love the blue washed out looking shoes...would you like to do a workshop in New Zealand?? lol...i'll be there with 'blue'bells on!!!
ciao
jessie
nelson, nz

Joan said...

I would love to come to a woad workshop. Please let me know when the next one is planned.
Elizabeth

Daphne said...

I would love to learn this! When will you be 'Woading' again? Where or what dates? I live in Orange County.

Daphne said...

I would love to learn this! When will you be 'Woading' again? Where or what dates? I live in Orange County.