ticket number 2

a little while ago [it seems like months but was only January 9] i asked my readers to supply a few pearls of wisdom to my whirled. in return i would put all the names into a hat and then pull a name out. that person would receive a hand-felted ecoprint gift.

luckily i pulled out a second name...as the original winner, Suzan, hasn't written to claim her prize. i guess not everybody wants such objects.

the second name [as Martha in her role of scrutineer will confirm] was that of my dear friend Rachelle who lives here in Aotearoa [where i have been for the past two weeks].

if only i had brought said object with me, just in case!

Suzan, i hope nothing untoward has happened in your life and that it's merely a personal aversion to felt that has stopped you replying....and Rachelle, i'll be posting a parcel to you next week - providing i can overcome the battle of the suitcases and get my abundance of thrift store materials packed and on to that plane for the land of Oz...

and in case you were wondering why the post opened with a dog picture? that's Mollie, who [along with baby Knuckles] joined us for the week.

we run a pretty flexible ship....here's Mollie [below] enjoying some cuddle-time on our last field trip for the week, when we visited a beautiful local garden and dyed our cloth maps with windfalls [AND were treated to morning tea which grew topsy-like into lunch]

one of the conversations during the week touched on the subject of masterclasses. although i do have an MA - which, in the absence of being qualified by a Guild as a Master would, I imagine,  permit me to conduct such things - i choose not to label my classes as such.

i'll confess to having thought about it...but i'd rather keep the door open to anyone who wants to learn about plant dyes than put up a virtual wall and keep a percentage of potential participants out, if you see what i mean.

these past two weeks i've had several participants who might not have come had the course been labelled a masterclass [which it could well have been, as 'mapping country' is pretty challenging]...but it's been those not directly from textile backgrounds who have brought other wonderful skills to class and very kindly shared them. 

these coupled with long-standing textile practitioners in a range of specialisations, along with polytech students on summer 'holiday' and workshop students who have been in my classes before [some several times!] have made the past two weeks absolutely fantastic. 

a highlight of the second class was Rachelle discovering hitherto undocumented colours [so far as i can tell] -  glorious pinks and rich reds from the leaves of an indigenous New Zealand plant - but i'll let her tell you more about that [if she wants to]