muttering and fondling the crystal ball

i've been roaming the whirled and teaching many many classes since the publication of Eco Colour [2008] and Second Skin [2011], the two books into which i poured my dye knowledge so that

+ folks out in the whirled could make fabulous colour without the need for toxic chemical mordants

+ the techniques wouldn't get lost and so that in the event my children [or who knows, potential grand-children] ever wanted to know what Mumsie was brewing out the in the shed they could look it up

+ there'd be some kind of record that, although i didn't rush out and patent the ecoprint [something many people have since told me i should have done], it was actually me who realised that when Latvian Easter Egg Dyeing techniques were married with Shibori-zome and blessed by eucalyptus then extraordinary magic would happen.

musing on life in this crossover limbo time sliding between one calendar and the next,  i'm beginning to wonder. foremost in my mind is that you can't have a dog and keep wandering like a fly in a bottle...and i am very much missing the daily delightful companionship of a dogfriend [thank you all those kind folk who let me have dog therapy with their friends last year, especially that lovely chap in Washington Square, San Francisco who let me spend time with his two polar bears who were pretending to be Maremma's]

doing my 2011-12 tax [a little late] on New Year's Eve the numbers were scarily clear. there i am rushing around the whirled, disseminating techniques that took me years to develop but there's not that much over after paying bills. it may sound glamorous and it can be wonderfully satisfying but in the end it's also really, really exhausting. [even though i've never had jet-lag]

 i try to distribute transport expenses by setting a flat fee whirled-wide but despite this very often when i am asked to teach a class somebody will want to haggle about the cost.

 a person in Alaska actually had the audacity to suggest that i consider a teaching gig there as a holiday.

what?

on which planet does that make sense? how is it a holiday if i am working? how will it benefit me to pay $4000 in airfares from Australia plus accommodation plus plus plus. oh yes, i forgot, it will be a holiday. thanks so much.

to cut a long story short, i'm letting y'all know that while workshops have been planned for 2013, there may not be so many in 2014.  there'll be a West Coast series [Washington, Oregon, California] in the northern fall this year [2013] and a gig in Vancouver, Canada 

none of which is listed on the website yet

but

other than the yet-to-be-posted West Coast Wandering, what's on the workshop page is IT for now.

if you would like to learn something from me in the Southern Hemisphere there are only three options available. one in West Australia in April and the other two in New Zealand [one on each island] in a few weeks time.

the workshop in the South Island will be held at the Keylock family property in the Lud Valley. we might even manage an excursion to Cable Bay [the scene of our wonderful "wade in the water" session the year we made reconstructed garments and immersed them in the sea prior to dyeing]

we'll be making a wayfarer's wanderbook. stitching a beautiful wrapping cloth. dyeing paper and fabrics. telling stories, doing a bit of writing - penning poems as well as prose. we'll be paying close attention to a very beautiful part of the whirled - enjoying nourishment for the spirit together with very practical dye techniques.

if the prospect of five days doing this interests you, do please drop Judy Keylock a line here  

     judykeylock[at]mac[dot]com

or give her a tinkle on +64 [0]3 545 2176 as there are a couple of places left in the class

if you made it to the bottom of the page, thanks for hanging in there.

and have a fabulous year.