Day: April 20, 2018

Turkey Tracks:  April 29, 2018

Amelia Poole:  Ecoture Textile Studio

Fiber artist Amelia Poole came to Coastal Quilters last Saturday.

My what a nice program she gave us.

Amelia works with indigo dye processes AND with dyeing natural fabrics with local flora and fauna.  Amelia made her dress fabric—see below—using this latter process—which does involve treating natural fabrics with heated chemical solutions before attempting to get images from local leaves, ferns, seed pods, and the like.

She treated us to a history of humans using dyes they have made from the indigo plant—which is a complicated process, actually.  Did you know that this human endeavor can be traced back over thousands of years.  She showed us a slide of a 6,000 year old fabric that still held indigo dyes in the fibers.  The indigo plant itself (there are several varieties across the world) just looks…green.  Who knew it would dye things blue??

Every now and then I am so overwhelmed by something I’m observing that I forget to take pictures.  This paralysis happened with Amelia’s indigo dyed samples, which are fascinating and beautiful.  But you can see pictures on her web site:  http://ecouturetextilestudio.com.

 

The Coastal Quilters blog also has a lovely write-up—done by the talented Paula Blanchard—on Amelia’s work:

Coastalquiltersmaine1@wordpress.com.

And here are some pictures I did take of some of her dyed fabrics using local plants.

Amelia sells beautiful silk scarves if you are looking for something really special as a gift.  And she, of course, has indigo pieces to sell.