NATURE'S RAINBOW - Key Persons

When I was at infant school I remember being taught about stone age man. You know, there was one of those illustrations in a book showing a group of fur clad primitives with stone tools and maybe a spear. One of these people would have been holding a bowl containing crushed up berries and was smearing red juice onto another's face. Our teacher told us that coloured pigments (paint) was made from berries by our ancestors. Something about this imagery penetrated deep into my young mind and back at home I went into the garden and picked a load of nice red berries off a bush and mashed them up in a bowl. There was little or no colour, just a mess of greenish brown sludge which produced a greyish brown stain on paper. I was puzzled and disillusioned, either my teacher was wrong or there was something she was not telling us. The idea that our teacher was ignorant or the teaching material had been dumbed down for an infantile audience never occurred to me but I never forgot the incident. I eventually went off to University and got an Honours degree in Biology and Geology. However, I graduated into the 1980's recession and there were no jobs to be had, so after a number of years unemployed I went back to college to do a Graphic Design Diploma in illustration and spent the next 16 years employed as a Graphic Designer. During this time I met Susan, we settled in HItchin and soon acquired an allotment. In my mind the thought of obtaining colour from plants began to resurface for some reason. I did some research into dye plants and singled out the three plants that would give three primary colours - red, blue and yellow which I knew could be combined to give all the other colours. These plants were woad, madder and weld. I started with woad and madder and got a handful of seeds by mail order. The woad seeds grew well and in a few months I had some large plants. The madder seeds only produced a single germination (all of our madder has been propagated from this one plant). It would be some years before we would have a harvest worth using. Meanwhile I had obtained a sheep's fleece from an organic farm and together we started to work out what to do. Susan joined the local Guild of Spinners, Weavers and Dyers and we were in good hands.

lovely website, look forward to your new posts! good luck for the Festival of Quilt this week x aviva

I live in Hitchin, Hertfordshire but was born and grew up in Norwich. I have a BSc in psychology, an MSc in Organisational Psychology and am fascinated by what leads people to finding fulfilment in life. For me it has never been money and status. I love learning, teaching and using my imagination. It's taken me a long time to come close to finding my niche.