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29th July 2020 – Recipe #2
In 2000 I received my first major commission – from the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. As part of their new British Galleries they were dressing the Great Bed of Ware with everything required to give you a comfortable night – mattress, sheets, hangings, pillows, coverlet … I was asked to dye all the blackwork silks and make the tassels for the corners of the pillowcases. I was over the moon! The bed hangings were stunning – really vivid red and yellow all the red yarns being dyed by Eva Lambert in Scotland and the yellows dyed by the then dyer at Styal Mill in Cheshire. In 2010 Eva…
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23rd July 2020 – Recipe #1
In 1994 Jenny Dean’s The Craft of Natural Dyeing was published by Search Press, perfect timing for someone wanting to start producing handspun naturally dyed embroidery silks for their new life as a 17th Century Embroideress! My sons were 8 and 6 when we joined the Sealed Knot, too young for me to just leave and go on the battlefield so I needed to give myself a character and chose to be an embroideress. The eldest enjoyed the re-enactment events and became a fifer and drummer for the regiment, the younger hated them and started calling in favours from friends as he got older, just so he wouldn’t have to…