Well, day three of NEWS is just about over. This morning we all unwrapped our plant fibers that had been marinating in dye overnight. After a good rinse and a dip in some hot water and Synthropol, we set them out to dry. I think I might have to get my hands on this, a non-toxic alternative to Synthropol. Give a hoot! Don't pollute!
 
After taking a look at yesterday's handiwork, I had a much better idea of how I wanted to proceed. I was happy to experiment on some basic 8/2 cotton, so that today I could do something cool with linen. I am really loving linen these days. I decided to take two primaries and gradually blend them. The blue-green-yellow item is the result. We'll see how it looks in the morning when it's dry (hopefully). 

 
We also moved on to protein (animal based) fibers. Interestingly, soy silk falls into this category as does nylon. There was a bit of a snafu with the burners, so we didn't make as much progress as we would have hoped, but no worries. Vicki did a bit of rearranging of the schedule, and all was well. We discussed color theory, and proceeded to practice overdyeing. We'll see the results of that experiment tomorrow morning.
 
I also got to catch an up close view of the garments in the fashion show. There were some really innovative items, including a vest woven out of strips of old sewing patterns. 
 
This evening's speaker was Betsy Blumenthal. I know Betsy in passing as she retired from Schacht just before I started working there. She is so creative, especially when it comes to color. I was lucky enough to share breakfast with her this morning, and she mentioned that she had just learned to hemstitch within the past year. She explained that it had just hadn't interested her as it didn't really fit into her laid back weaving style. The funny thing is that she produces some amazingly complex pieces, but she seems to value the simple weaves just as highly.
 
I feel really lucky to be here surrounded by so many creative people. I'm marking my calendar for NEWS 2011!