handmade love

one of the funnest parts of doing craft shows is trading with other exhibitors.  at the last couple shows i've done i traded with people whose work was so in demand that they had to ship their portion of the trade to me later, which i don't mind at all because i tend to forget that it's coming and then have such a fun surprise when it shows up.

the handmade stars seemed to be aligned today cause when i got home from the dentist (yuck) there was three packages waiting for me!  one was a set of two handmade bowls from peterman bowls, that are absolutely gorgeous and are already serving as fruit bowls on the counter.  the second was this darling but of course very fierce bunny from sonja ahlers:

and the third was a small pouch i just bought online from bookhou:

it's actually made from the drop cloths arounna uses for her silkscreening. i love bookhou's clean and geometric prints (i use their lines and rain pouch so much, sometimes as a clutch purse, sometimes to hold my ipad and sometimes as a travel embroidery pouch), and i really liked the idea of these pouches made from a by-product of their production, and how un-geometric they are.


i'm always intrigued to see how other makers package their wares when shipping them, and both sonja and arounna did such a good job of packing in a way that reflects the aesthetic of their work, something that i'm definitely still working on for my hats.

the bunny came wrapped in recycled clothing patterns, with a doily and pink ribbon to bundle it up.

the pouch came simply and carefully wrapped in kraft tissue, with a stamped sticker and handwritten thanks - so reflective of the clean and careful aesthetic that makes bookhou so popular.

i have lots to learn from these lovely ladies!

time for indigo again?

the weather in toronto has turned gloriously spring-like this week, and it's got me thinking about dyeing again.  i never feel much like dyeing in the cold weather, and since it's my busy season with the hats, my dyepots often get put away for much of the winter.

we just spent the weekend in montreal visiting mohssine's family, and sunday was so warm and sunny that we spent hours and hours just walking around the city, being happy to be out and about, people watching and window shopping.

i saw quite a few things that got my dyeing juices flowing, including this bag in the window at the gap, which i actually think is kind of ugly, but is clearly inspired by shibori.  it's likely printed fabric made to look like shibori though, rather than the real thing.  one of the mannequins in the window at harry rosen was wearing an indigo coloured ombre scarf just like in the photo of me up top.  mohssine had on another version of the same scarf that i had made him, but his is in a beautiful unbleached linen so the blue is even deeper and richer.


anyways, like i say it all made me want to get the dyepots cooking again.  i was even thinking about trying to wake up my indigo vat, which may be a bit premature, since it will likely not stay this warm for good.  


what about you?  does the spring weather inspire you to dye?

the great gatsby

i'm getting ready to do a new photo shoot of my hats, and have been looking through some photos and fashions from the 20's.  somehow this led me to a re-read of the great gatsby, and i ended up devouring it in just two days.  it really is a great book.

then of course i thought it was time for a re-watch of the movie as well - the classic 1974 version with robert redford and mia farrow.  despite the fact that everyone is incredibly sweaty throughout the entire movie, the costumes really are spectacular.

only about 5 minutes into the movie i had to google to figure out who the actor was playing tom, since i knew i knew him but couldn't figure it out.  of course it's bruce dern, who i know is a great actor, but i can no longer see as anyone but frank from big love - ew.

in the process of googling, i discovered that there's going to be a new version, by baz luhrmann, who i love.  i'm not sure how i feel about the choice of leonardo di caprio as gatsby, but casey mulligan as daisy and tobey maguire as nick both seem perfect.

i can't wait to see the costumes for this version - it's fascinating how the portrayal of period costumes changes depending on when the film is made.  i found this small sneak peek:

pepper bread

been busy preparing to head to philadelphia tomorrow.  i'm participating in the buyer's market of amercian craft, a wonderful wholesale show that focuses on exclusively canadian or american handmade work.  though i did the show in baltimore in the summertime, the philly show is much bigger, so i'm a little nervous, but also quite excited about the possibilities that may be presented.

in the meantime, i wanted to share the most recent blog post of my roommate aube, who has a wonderful blog called kitchen vignettes, where she makes beautiful video recipes.  i always love her posts, but this one is a particular favorite, as it features a cameo by my trusty studio assistant, pepper.

you may also gather from the post that we are slightly obsessed with this bread at our house.  but it really is the most delicious, and so incredibly easy.  i actually even skip one of the steps that aube shows in the video, and instead of punching down the loaf on a floured board, i simply fold it over on itself a couple of times with a spatula.  which means not only less dishes, but great homemade bread, in about 10 minutes of active time (though the whole process does take more like 15 hours, it's true).  

anyways, just wanted to share pepper's star turn in the movies.  we're hoping it doesn't go to her head.  if you enjoyed that one, there is also this video, featuring our other favorite critter.

having a sale!

to celebrate/mourn the winter that never was (though i'm sure i've spoken too soon), i'm having a big sale.

at www.juliesinden.com, all of the 100% merino, boiled wool hats, scarves and mittens are 25% off.  simply use the coupon code "February" to recieve the discount.


and over in the etsy store, the last few naturally dyed scarves have already been slashed to 50% off their regular price.  i'm making room for spring's new selection of scarves, all in silk and linen.

bleu de lectoure

have been away from here for so long, but always thinking of you all, and meaning to get back.  when this landed in my inbox today, i felt like i needed to share it, and so here i am, and hopefully this can be the jumpstart to get back here more regularly.

got a message today from kathy hattori of botanical colours in seattle, a fabulous source of dyes, information and workshops on the west coast.  botanical colours is hosting a one day workshop with denise lambert, of the famed bleu de lectoure in france.  bleu de lectoure specialises in woad, and in revitalizing the craft, farming and industry of this beautiful dyestuff, which was once incredibly abundant in france and much of the rest of europe.


while seattle is a little too far for me to journey for a one day course, i wanted to spread the word to those of you who may live a little closer.  i think it would be an incredible opportunity to learn about woad dyeing from denise.  you can find details on the course on the botanical colours site, here.

making my way back

feels like it's been forever since i've been here - probably because it has been.  life gets pretty hectic for me in the fall, as the hats really take over my life.  i did two wholesale shows this summer, and now i'm in the thick of things - having to actually send out those orders.  the administration side of that is in itself a full time job, so keeping up with that, while actually having to make all the hats, well, it's keeping me busy.

but it's also such a great time of year for local dyestuffs, and i've snuck in a few dyeing moments over the past few weeks.  one of the most exciting things, for me, was a surprise visit from one of my art school teachers, coby, who was the woman who introduced me to natural dyeing.

coby lives in the kootenays, in bc, where i went to art school, but was in ontario to see family, and was keeping a 'journal' of her time here through dyeing.  each place or person she visited, she would gather some wild dyestuffs and bundle it all up in a small square of silk, sprinkle the silk with alum water, and bundle it all up.  she plans to create some sort of art piece with it when it's all done.

here is miss coby herself, bundling away on the deck at my cottage

 


















and here are some of her bundles from some of her other spots along the way.  i love how they look like little cocoons of colour

and the bundle to be that represents her time with me in port ryerse - a very fitting one i think, as the property at the cottage is bordered by a huge trumpet vine (the red flowers) at the front, and an enormous, ancient black walnut tree (the green ball) at the back.

 













i myself did a bunch of bundling with my mom a few weeks ago - have been too busy to even unwrap them yet, but hopefully will do that this weekend, and will be back soon to show you the results.......

book report: wild colour

i've been on a bit of a travelling roadshow lately with the hats, and haven't had a chance to do much dyeing.  but fortunately i'll be working for the next couple weeks from the little village i grew up in, and this time of year is fantastic for gathering local wild dyestuffs.  and i will.....

in the meantime, i wanted to put up a little natural dye book report of sorts.  over the years i've collected quite a few natural dye books, so i thought i could share little mini-reviews of my favorites with you.

i'll begin with wild colour, by jenny dean, which is one of the two dye books that i use the most, and recommend the most when people ask me.  my copy is older, i think there is a new edition with a different cover.

i think it's really the best all around natural dye book out there, and has clear instructions and great photos for most everything you might want to know as a beginner dyer, including several things you don't see in other books, like how to make your own mordants:

and also great experiments to try, such as this one, making 25 different colours from one dyebath:

 













the second half of the book lays out one page per dyestuff, and as the title suggests, it focuses on many dyestuffs that can be found in the wild.  of course, this depends a lot of where you live (the author lives in england), but many (though certainly not all) of the dyestuffs listed are things that i can find in southern ontario.  some, like goldenrod, are abundant right here in downtown toronto (right now!):

my only real complaint with this book is the kind of colour swatches that are used to demonstrate the potential colours within a dyestuff.  almost all dye books i've seen use photos of actual fibres which have been dyed.  in this book, it's a kind of pantone colour swatch, which i find can be a bit misleading.  for example, if anyone has ever been able to achieve such beautiful shades of soft pink using birchbark, like the swatches shown, i'd love to see them.  in my experience, you're more likely to get a range of browns with pink undertones.

but all in all, this is one of my two most valuable natural dye resource books, and i highly recommend it.  back soon with some actual dyeing!
 

kitchen vignettes

my lovely and very talented housemate aube has recently started a food blog, called kitchen vignettes, which you really should go check out.  aube is not only an incredible cook and lover of all things food, but she's also a super talented filmmaker and photographer. (you may remember she helped me out here.)   her blog combines her two passions, and she has some wonderful video-recipes posted.  i absolutely adore the garlic scape pesto video, for the sheer beauty of it, but i also love the quiet hilarity of her most recent chicken soup video (in which you may spot a cameo by a familiar face). 

aube's name is.....well....aube, but she is often given the nickname aubergine, hence the title and header, and all the beautiful photos she's done of that particular purple plant, like these ones:

feeling pretty lucky to live in the house where all these recipes are being created.....

you should also check out this post by sweet carolanne, who has got some rockin japanese indigo plants going.  i'm sad to say that the indigo plants i started haven't faired nearly so well.  my garden is full of beautiful tomatoes and herbs, but alas, the dye plants haven't shot up alongside them.  i may try to start some indigo seeds indoors, using the tutorial carolanne mentions.  i know they need the heat of the summer, so it may not work, but i figure it can't hurt to try.....

dusk dances

i've had a strange (and quite terrible cold) for the last week or so, and have been laying pretty low, but i did make it to dusk dances, one of my all time favorite toronto summer events.  every year it's different and every year it's amazing, and i love that it happens in withrow park, which is right around the corner from my house. 

this year there were five different scenes, and another thing i love about dusk dances is how between each dance you up and move to a different part of the park.  the audience was huge when i went this year, and there's this great excited energy as everyone hurries and jostles to get a good spot to watch each scene.

one of my favorites this year was this performance, which i don't think i can describe better than the photo can:

but my absolute favorite were these gals, who were playing 1950's prom attendees, who started out really sweet and went a bit psyco by the end (all through dance, of course):

dusk dances is still on tour, you should check it out to see if they're coming to a park near you.  

summer is such a wonderful time for these small festivals - tonight i'm going to see a summerworks play "the intruder" that my friend clare did the movement direction for, and thursday i'll see another summerworks show "one" that my friend keith is in. both have been getting some great reviews.

and keeping all this summer festival-ing rolling - i just discovered that the edmonton fringe fest will be on when i'm there for a wholesale show next week. so excited! the edmonton fringe is legendary, and i think it will be a perfect way to spend my evenings after the show.

have you seen any great shows or festivals this summer?  do you have a favorite event that you make sure to catch every year?

back (for a while now) from charm city

i'm a terrible blogger these days.  my only excuse is that it's summer, and that summer is short and i try to spend as much of it as possible away from the computer, and if possible, away from internet access all together.  i think it's a pretty good excuse.

been back from baltimore for a couple of weeks, it was a good trip - my first wholesale show and i learned so so much about that particular world.  and have a bunch of new stores for the hats too.....

baltimore was an interesting city - i joked before i left that all i knew of it was john waters and the wire.  and it turns out that there are definitely parts of the city that actually reflect those two very different realities.  the downtown seems a bit struggling, seems like one of those cities where a lot of people have made a run for the suburbs, and the downtown is left a bit barren and not taken care of.

but the best thing about baltimore was learning why it's called 'charm city'.  and it's because the people are the friendliest, most outgoing of anywhere i've ever been.  we canadians have a reputation of being friendly, but i think what we are is polite, or nice even.  we're actually quite reserved.  the time i spent in france i thought the same thing of the french - everyone is all 'mademoiselle' this and 'je vous en prie' that.  polite to the point of formal even.

but baltimore?  in baltimore they're friendly.  it's different.  i have never had so many strangers speak to me on the street, in a store, in the elevator, everywhere.  everyone is talking to each other all the time.  the amount of times i got called 'hon' in one day?  quite something.  when i returned home i was definitely happy to be back in toronto, but it did make me a little sad to be back on a silent streetcar, everyone staring into their phones, ignoring each other.

a highlight of the trip was a visit to the american vistionary art museum.  an incredible place.  out front you're greeted by trees covered in mirrors

and an entire bus covered in mosaics and flowery creatures like this little bunny:

and all sorts of other weird and wonderful.  can you imagine having this bird's nest balcony for your apartment?:

the exhibit that was on was called "what makes us smile" and it was incredible.  at the risk of exposing my juvenile sense of humour, i'm going to go ahead and admit that my favorite thing there was this:

a bench covered in whoopee cushions!  it was in a room called the 'toot suite', which was, well, a room dedicated to.....fart humour.  which is hilarious.  and the bench was too much - someone would sit on it, it would make it's noise, and you couldn't help but to laugh.  i saw people trying not to laugh.  but they couldn't.  they all eventually broke down.  who can help it? farts are funny.

on that note, i'll leave you with this......

a rainbow in the shop

over the long weekend, my very very helpful super duper mom and aunt helped me skein up a bunch of the wool that i've been dyeing here and there over the spring.  i spent this afternoon photographing everything, and now it's all available in my shop.

all of the yarn is 100% superwash merino wool and dyed with either plant or insect dyes.  it's a beautifully soft yarn, and the perfect gauge for a variety of projects.

unknowingly, i had dyed up a real rainbow of colours, so i couldn't help taking a bunch of shots of the wool arranged as such.

tips for charm city?

i keep meaning and keep forgetting to put a call out to you all.  i'm heading to baltimore this weekend for the buyer's market of american craft, and though i have apparently been there once when i was ten years old (for a blue jays vs. orioles game, back in the days the sindens used to bop all over the states for the blue jays???), i don't have much memory of it.  my current picture of baltimore is a mix of john waters and the wire, which is obviously not very balanced.  a quick perusal of the design sponge guide and the city paper online has shown that there seems to be a lot of great stuff going on in baltimore, and i'm super stoked to go check some of it out.

anyone know baltimore well? anything i really should see/buy/eat/do?  a great neighbourhood to hit?  neighbourhoods to avoid?  any advice is much appreciated.  thanks team!

dining before and after

my husband and i bought our first home a year ago january, and this summer is the first that we've had a chance to really do anything at all to the backyard.  we really wanted to make it a little oasis in the city, somewhere that we could linger over late summertime dinners or spend a saturday afternoon in the hammock with the paper.

i wanted to have a really great table out there, for said dinners (we live in a house full of great cooks, so the kitchen and the table really are the heart of our home), but i was also on a budget, so i ended up revamping a table that was a curbside score (toronto is an amazing city for this), along with some chairs that the previous owners of our house had left behind.

here is the before shot.  my supervisor is clearly not impressed.

a few coats of paint, some great fabric and an umbrella, and voila:

i used nani iro oilcloth that i got at the workroom for the seats.  i adore this fabric. karyn just got a bunch more of the line in cotton gauze - her photos always make me want to rush in and fabric horde.

 our backyard is even more magical right now, since the mock orange is blooming.  the entire tree is covered in white blossoms that smell amazing.

 and when the wind blows, the petals fall and it feels like it's snowing.  snowing beautiful, fragrant petals.  it's lovely.

 

ready to dye

if any of you started a natural fermentation vat of your own, by now it may be ready to dye. 

the vat is ready when all (or at least most) of the oxygen has been reduced out of it.  indigo dyeing is quite magical - the actual dyeing takes place not in the vat, like an immersion dye, but when the fibres are lifted out of the vat.  the oxygen hits them and they turn blue.

the first sign that things are going well with your vat is that you will have a kind of coppery sheen on the top of it - this may happen in the first few days even.  you know how gas spilled on the sidewalk has kind of a rainbowy, shimmery quality to it?  like that.

but to know that your vat is actually ready to go, simply take up a small scoop of the liquid in a clear container.   when healthy, the vat liquid will no longer be blue, but a greenish, yellowy blue, or if very healthy, amber.  jim liles always describes the colour as dark beer colour.

and of course the ultimate test is to stick a piece of fabric in there.  i have a pile of the selvedge edges of white fabric that i use to test my vats.  stick a piece of fabric in there, and after a few minutes when you pull it out it should be a bright, vibrant, sometimes almost neon green.  and then the magic.  the colour will slowly shift before your eyes and become the beautiful blue that is indigo.

i tried to take a photo to show this, and didn't have too much luck, since the colour shifts pretty quickly, but you can get a bit of the idea here.  the fabric on the left has only just began to turn blue, while the piece on the right is fully oxydized.

if you take your fabric out and it is already blue, or the liquid you take up in a container is still blue - your vat is not ready, and the dye will not stick.  the oxygenation process has to happen.


in other types of vats, like the zinc-lime, another sign of health is that a 'flower' forms on the top of the vat.  this will depend partly on the size of your vat - when i did my very tiny glass jar, the surface of the vat was quite small and i would only have a few little bubbles on the top.  but now that i have a bigger vat going, i've also got quite a nice little flower happening:

but, i will note that the flower on my fermentation vat is much smaller (about 2 inches across), then the one on my zinc-lime vat (about 5 inches across), even though the vats are now the same size.  photos of my zinc-lime flower, by much more skilled photographers than me, are here and here.


fingers crossed that your vats are happy!

photo shoot

i'm getting ready to go to the states for a wholesale show in a few couple weeks (with my hats, my full-time gig), and have been busy preparing.  it's going to be my first wholesale experience so i'm a little nervous, and hope that i have the right answers to any questions.  i'm also struggling to create a booth that i can fit in my suitcase....

we had a little photo shoot the other night with some of my newer products, the ever-adorable rosalyn as model, and my fabulous housemate aube as photographer.  we started with a bunch of shots of hats, but we had been struggling to come up with a good way to get photos of my mittens that wouldn't be just a static shot of hands or the mittens on a backround.  and so.....

 

kind of ridiculous.  but i love it.  now it feels like it needs to be some kind of animation.  which is clearly not going to happen.  but still.

one of my favorite shots from the night is also my new favorite product, this braided scarf:

super mega-thanks to aube and roz! 

questions

figured i would pop in quickly and answer the two questions that came from the last post, here, rather than in the comments sections.

nicole asked about the daily stirring - concerned that it would introduce oxygen into the vat, which is of course exactly what you're trying to avoid.  i do what my instructor in art school taught me, and what i saw a very experienced indigo dyer in japan do - stir in a circular motion with a (very long) spoon that reaches to the bottom of the pot.  this way, the spoon is mixing up the sludge that has settled at the bottom (which is the point of the stirring - to reintroduce the mix into the water to allow the chemical reactions to continue happening).  and as you stir you begin to create a whirlpool - not only does this mix things up fairly aggressively without adding too much oxygen, but once you have a flower forming, the whirlpool helps to bring the flower back together into the centre of the vat.

i agree with margie that it's good to do your stirring at the same time each day - then it just becomes part of your regular daily routine.  i do mine first thing in the morning - feels like a little check-in to see how they're doing....
 and heleen asked if it was possible to use a big plastic bucket to make a vat in, which it definitely is.  you can use any type of vessel you like.  preferably one with a lid, to help keep both the air out and the smell in.  currently both my natural fermentation and my zinc-lime vats are in 5 gallon plastic pails, the kind that a contractor or painter might use. 

the main consideration when choosing a vessel is what you're going to dye.  i had my fermentation vat in a smaller container (a stock pot), but then when i would dye large skeins of wool, the wool was too big and would touch the sediment at the bottom of the pot, mixing it all up, which you don't want to do while dyeing.  your goods will not only get a bunch of unreduced indigo on them, which will make them look darker blue than they are but will then wash off when you rinse (and waste the indigo), but once the liquid gets too stirred up, you have to stop and let the sediment settle again, which takes at least two hours.  so choose a vessel that is big enough that your fibres can go into it without touching the bottom two inches or so of the vat.

the other consideration is keeping the vat warm - the advantage of a stock pot or other metal vessel is that you can just plunk it on the stove to warm it up.  but this time of year your vat shouldn't need any additional warming - summer room temperature will be more than enough.  however come winter, a plastic vat will be harder to keep warm, and alive.

there's many wonderful photos of indigo dyers in warm climates, who have their vats built right into the ground, like this man in india:

photo from here

natural fermentation recipe

so i promised last time that i would detail out how i made the natural fermentation vat that we used at our dyeing party last week.  the recipe i used comes from cheryl kolander at aurora silk and you can find it right here.  there is also a very similar recipe in "the art and craft of natural dyeing" by jim liles, which is one of my two natural dye bibles that i refer to all the time.  he has several indigo recipes, including old fashioned sig vats, which use just indigo and urine.  but i am nowhere near that hardcore.  and my vats are already stinky enough, thank you very much.


in any case, as i said, the recipe is very simple.  for my medium sized vat, which i did in a big stock pot (holds around 2 gallons, or 7-8 litres) i combined:


warm water, almost to the brim
50 grams of finely ground indigo
28 grams finely ground madder root
28 grams regular old wheat bran
170 grams soda ash


stir very well (especially when you add the indigo - it is notoriously tough to dissolve), put a lid on it (important, as the point is that you're trying to reduce the oxygen out of the vat), and put in a warm place.  


and that's it!  the key is that you have to look after it a little bit, but all this means is that you need to stir it once a day (quite well), and make sure it stays warm.  as i said, when i did this vat in the winter, it took almost 6 weeks to be ready to dye, but the vat that i started recently and have been keeping in a warm attic only took 5 or 6 days.  


gotta run to teach a class at the workroom (felting this time!), but i'll come back in a day or two and talk about how you know that your vat is ready to dye.


any questions so far?

dyeing party

had a little dyeing party in the backyard last night.  we had trouble getting the zinc-lime indigo vat going in the advanced dyeing class at the workroom, so i had promised the students that once i got mine going at home, i would invite them all over for some dipping.

and it was even better, because since then i have also gotten my natural fermentation vat going.  the mini one that i wrote about a few weeks ago worked out so well that i started up a second, slightly bigger one.  i had only ever done a natural fermentation vat once, years and years ago, and i had never really been motivated to do it again, since that vat took a really long time to be ready (six weeks!), and even then wasn't very strong.  but i now realise that the problem wasn't the vat, but the time of year.  last time i tried it was winter, and i struggled to even keep my vat at room temperature, just like my zinc-lime vat this past winter.  

but.....now that it's warm, and i've got my vats up in my (cooking hot) attic studio, everything is coming up blue.

the natural fermentation vat is really quite easy, and last night we were getting some beautiful blue in a wonderful range of intensities.  i linked to the recipe that i used a few posts ago, but i'll come back soon and do a post with more details of how i made my vat, and perhaps some discussion of the different types of vats.

but first, some photos of our dyeing fun:

it was lovely to see the backyard all covered in fabrics and yarns in various stages of dipping and oxydizing.

one of my favorite parts of shibori is the 'reveal', when you unfold the fabric and see what kind of design you've created.  this is karyn's lovely window pane piece.

 


















susan put on a pot of cochineal and added some lime juice to it.  the acid from the limes brings out the red, especially on wool.  i dyed the ends of a few skeins of superwash merino to create some new variegated colourways that i'll have in the shop soon.

the evening was overseen by my trusty studio assistant, who managed to escape the fate of indigo dipped paws.

it was a great night, so much fun to be dyeing in a group like that.  arounna has posted some lovely photos, including one of the indigo flower on top of the zinc-lime vat (which is how you know your vat is ready to dye).