February 2009
The textile workshop retreat finished a few weeks ago. We were originally going to have five people attending, but in the end we only had three. But I must admit it went like a treat. It was a new experience for two of the participants, Chris Harley and Barbara Butler, who are artists in embroidery in their own right, and both have taught and shown their work throughout the 
Contemporary Quilts is now somewhat familiar for Andrea Langfield, who chose to work in blue silks, which she over-dyed in indigo here at the studio. All three produced stunning and very pleasing 
pieces of work, which have inspired me hugely. Other activities included paper-making, indigo dyeing, and preparing indigo vats from our own indigo paste.
This indigo paste was produced with the help of a few friends and members of the Myanmar tour (Daphne and Joan from South Africa, and Carol from the UK), who helped to harvest and extract the indigo from our plants back in early November last year. This involved going out to our field early one morning to cut the indigo – 
indigoferra tinctoria – as one has to harvest the indigo while the leaves are still damp from the overnight dew. We gathered nearly 80 kilos, cutting the plants down to just above the ground, and made these cuttings into many bundles, which we then allowed to ferment in six large dustbins for two nights. We then had to 
remove the bundles of plants and beat the greenish water until bubbles appeared and made a singing sound. Left overnight, the liquid produced the indigo as a sediment in the bottom of the bins, which we strained off and collected as indigo paste. Altogether we collected seven to eight kilos of paste, and it is now being kept in a dark container to be used as 
needed for dyeing. How we produced alkaline ash water for the dye vat is another story.
We hope to increase the number of indigo plants next year. So far we have managed to grow two types of indigoferra tinctoria. One type produces straight pods, and the other produces smaller, crescent-shaped pods. I shall discuss our indigo harvest and making of the indigo paste in a later newsletter.
As cotton and indigo plants are compatible with each other, we decided to have a go at planting cotton as well. The white variety has been prolific and beautiful. The local variety, which is a light brown, did not germinate well, though it is in high demand. We have not yet decided what to do with the cotton we have picked. I’m in the middle of researching the best way of utilising this organic cotton creatively.
We saw the end of 2008 with very mixed feelings. We were very sad to learn of the passing away of Peter Collingwood. It was a great privilege to have known him, and I shall miss him very much.
Like many people around the world, we have felt the effects of the present economic crisis. The pound has suffered badly in
When you read this, I shall probably be somewhere in
For details of future workshops, please see the COMING EVENTS page of my web-site, or contact me by email.
Siripan
www.siripankidd.com
Text and images © Siripan Kidd 2009
