This retreat has passed and it was a stone cold blast. We are in the planning phases of our 2017 Deep Into Indigo Retreat(s?).
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Friday August 26th – Sunday August 28th, 2016
That’s right. A whole friggin’ weekend dedicated to turning things blue!!
It will be at a gorgeous retreat center in Viroqua (round about 2 hours North West of Madison).
Beds? Got you covered
Food? We got this
Gorgeous Location? Check
Fun? A given
Indigo? Duh
I’ll bring the blue and the shibori toys and the awesome Jenina Mella will bring her serious party planning skills to the food and the many details. We’ll all bring the fun.
Simply put, this will rock your (blue) socks off. Tell all your best friends!!
More details to come as soon as we figure them out.
Last night was my Indigo Dye and Shibori workshop at Olbrich Gardens. It was so much fun!
Everyone was really nice and had a great time. I had everyone make four different patterns and then dip them in the indigo as the sun went down.
It was a lovely evening but it was not very conducive to taking pictures of beautiful finished pieces.
There were lots of beautiful finished pieces, but you’ll have to take my word for it. Because the sun set.
But I did get this shot. I’ve been promised pictures. If I get some, I’ll share them with you. Everything was really gorgeous. I’m always struck by the little temporary positive community that gets made in a class like this. I love it.
I have class times coming up at Paradigm Gardens. The next one is September 13th and is an Indigo 101 class.
But, it was the good kind of blue. INDIGO, obv.
I had an Indigo 101 class at Paradigm Gardens and it was freakin’ awesome.
I always meet the most amazing and interesting people at my classes. We made the world pretty and bluer.
I’ll try not to overwhelm you with pictures.
Just kidding. I’m totally going to try to overwhelm you with pictures.
Because these are all so beautiful.
This becoming…
…this is not something you would want to miss.
And that kind of transformation happened a lot.
We named this guy Squidward.
He ended up being quite pretty.
Here’s just a bunch of beautiful work presented without (much) comment.
What’s that you say? There’s a surprising amount of green…
Well spotted. All this green turned blue when it oxidized. That’s just indigo’s way.
Here are all those greened up pieces after being in the air for a bit. The green bits all turn blue and all look gorgeous!
I’m kicking myself for not get a picture of this beautiful shawl after it oxidized. You’ll have to take my word for it, it’s stunning.
I did get a picture of this one and I’m blown away by how lovely it is.
The next classes are coming right up and if you’ve actually read this far, you’re hooked and should sign up as soon as you can! They are each $85…sort of.
This Sunday, July 19th is a Shibori only class. There won’t be any dyeing BUT we will focus on stitching, binding, clamping, folding and other assorted things to make beautiful patterns like the ones you’ve been shamelessly ogling above.
On Saturday, June 25th. I’ll have an Indigo 102 class. Welcome to anyone who has any experience dyeing. It’ll be $20 off if you’ve taken the Shibori classes on the 19th.
Call Paradigm Gardens at 608/241-3800 to sign up.
Call me at 608/852-3970 if you have questions about the classes.
Just a quick post to show the process of over-dying the Arashi piece I made. I’m not crazy about the finished piece but it was worth it to learn more about the process. I’m a totally junky for learning. That may be one of the reasons I like Shibori so much. It’s always different and it would take many lifetimes to master it.
I really got excited about arashi shibori and made a bunch of scarves with this technique. Arashi means storm in Japanese and is made by wrapping the fabric around a pole before dyeing it. I want to try several different ways to make patterns with it.
This one was made with random pleats and no string at all!
Some with by putting the scarf on the pole horizontally. They’re still so different because it’s such a versatile technique.
Accordion folded and wrapped on a diagonal.
No string on these either but I put a rubber band at each end to hold it in place.
I couldn’t possible pick a favorite. I had so much fun making them all and they are all so beautiful.
This is my favorite kind of mess to be left with.