Category archives: Dye House News

The Autumn was a busy time at Renaissance Dyeing both professionally and personally so no time was found to publish an Autumn Newsletter. For those who are new subscribers, normally you can expect a newsletter at least each season if not more often.

Winter Woad

So what happened in the Autumn? Well among other things

• At the busy Journées de la Laine at Felletin at the end of October we launched a few new patterns Madeline by Lili comme Tout and Fall in Creuse shawl by Hélène Marcy who came and spent the weekend with us to help launch the ...

Felletin is a yearly gathering of wool enthusiasts in the Creuse, the heart of France. This was its 17th year and they attacked the organisation with gusto not only enlarging the exhibition space but also extending the time of the market to include Friday afternoon. The result was a friendly event where one had more time and space to look around and meet and chat to fellow woolers.

There were more natural dyers than ever this year, Vive la révolution.

Some pics:

It was lovely for us and our customers that designer Hélène Marcy came from Toulouse to help us ...

Octobre signifie Journées Nationales de la Laine à Felletin et cette année, il va être encore plus excitant avec plus d'espace: plus de 130 stands et plus de temps car il commence déjà le 28 octobre, vendredi après-midi à 14h00 Donc, deux jours et demi de laine. Nous serons là comme d'habitude et nous sommes impatients de voir nos travailleurs laineux collègues.

October means Journées Nationales de la Laine in Felletin and this year it is going to be even more exciting with more space: over 130 stands and more time as it already starts on Friday 28th ...

Quelques amis dans l'Aude, ont eu des difficultés à obtenir un peu de bleu de leurs plantes guède, donc samedi dernier je suis allé pour aider.

J'étais un peu inquiet que peut-être il était trop tard dans l'année pour que les plantes donnent leur couleur précieuse, mais les feuilles bien faible en raison de la sécheresse donnaient des signes de contenant un pigment bleu, des taches pourpres sur les pointes des feuilles.

Some friends in the next department, Aude, have been having trouble getting any blue out of their woad plants, So last Saturday I went over ...

The first day we mordanted and got some interesting reds from the all-in-one bath method and we started the solar dyeing. Day two we really began to get into colours with the weld and cochineal baths, you can see the results being labeled below:

Le premier jour, nous avons mordancés la laine et a obtenu quelques rouges intéressants de la méthode un-bain, aussi nous avons commencé la teinture solaire. Le deuxième jour nous avons vraiment commencé à entrer dans les couleurs avec les soudure et cochenille bains du réséda et cochenille. Vous pouvez voir les résultats étant marqués ci-dessous:

Day ...

L'été est toujours une période chargée ici chez Renaissance Dyeing et cet été aussi. Nous sommes très fiers d'être membres de l'Association La Toison d'Art et une fois de plus, nous serons à certains des marchés dans la région Rhône-Alpes. Vous pouvez nous et les autres artisans trouver dans les marchés suivants:

• Dimanche 31 Juillet - St Pierre de Chartreuse (38)
• Lundi 1 août - Autrans (38)
• Mercredi 3 août - Abriès (05)
• Jeudi 4 août - Monétier (05)
• Samedi 6 août - Jausiers (04)
• Dimanche 7 août - Colmars (04)
• Vendredi 12 août - Anduze (30)
• Dimanche 14 août - St Jean du ...

First stop for wool is sheep. These are Sheila and Pete's Poll Dorsets, not only are they raised organically but the lambs are not sold for meat, only for breeding. So if anyone wants some good ewes or rams let me know and I will give you the shepherdess' number. You can find the naturally dyed wool here. Over the winter there will be some top designers presenting their work with this wool, keep an eye out.

Premier arrêt pour la laine est mouton. Ceux-ci sont les Poll Dorsets de Sheila et Pete, Ils sont élevés bio et les ...

Reseda Luteola, Weld or Dyers Rocket is a member of the cabbage family as the flea beetles in my garden know. Here it can be seen growing in the stones by my washing line. It prefers these kind of conditions to moist fertile soil. I leave it there year after year and it reseeds, doing much better by itself then through my sometimes painstaking efforts.

This plant is the queen of yellow dye givers, its dye is pure, bright and very colour and wash fast. It is sometimes a pain to work with having its own laws of saturation. It ...

What news for Spring 2016?

Adriaan and me are very busy (as usual) preparing for the Nantes salon: Pour l,'Amour du Fil which will be at the Nantes Expo Parc from April 20th - 23rd. We are looking forward to our first visit to Nantes and we will be taking lots of the crewel wool. We also have free tickets to give away. Leave a comment on this newsletter on our blog pages AND 'Like' the Renaissance Dyeing facebook page to enter into the draw. Winners will be contacted before April 10th.

Quelles nouvelles pour le printemps 2016?

Adriaan et ...

A Happy and Colourful New Year to all our customers and friends.

Nous souhaitons à tous nos clients et amis un joyeux et coloré 2016

With the New Year we will be introducing a New Wool. We are very very pleased to have been able to buy some combed Merino D'Arles tops directly from a shepherds' co-operative in the east of France. This has cut out middlemen and given the shepherds a descent price for their wool. We have had the beautifully soft wool spun into a 4 ply yarn in Biella, Italy - no chemicals, just soap used in ...