Seaweed Locavore

I am a recent convert to Instagram (thanks to all my workshop students who have been nagging at me for years...!) and the full meaning of how it can bring like-minded people together hit home yesterday when I finally got to meet two people I have been following - Kerryann and John Fitzgerald from Atlantic Irish Seaweed. They operate out of a teeny tiny village called Caherdaniel on the wild Atlantic coastline, about 45 minutes from Cill Rialaig.

John and Kerryann Fitzgerald

When I realised that they were close to Cill Rialaig whilst I was planning my trip, I immediately emailed John to see if I could attend one of their seaweed foraging workshops.  John explained that these workshops are ideally timed according to the best tides for seaweed collecting, so an exact date could not be scheduled until I got here.  Unfortunately, the tides were against me attending a regular workshop, but John had another idea in store for me....they had been approached by Tourism Ireland to showcase their locavore business and it just so happened that the film crew were coming to film while I was here. Would I be interested in participating??? You bet! 

Atlantic Irish Seaweed office at The Blind Piper, Caherdaniel

We met upstairs at The Blind Piper pub, and in true filming style, we started with the end of the seaweed story first - that is, we got to eat the fruits of our, or rather Kerryann's labour, before we went foraging. This was timed perfectly because it was lunchtime, and I was eager to try the dishes laid out before us.  By us I mean the four "tourists" for the day, so in me at least they had a bona fide model!

Getting our instructions for the filming from Simon the Cameraman.

Kerryann had prepared an array of delicious looking foods using local ingredients as well as different kinds of local seaweeds. Her descriptions of each dish were mouthwatering in themselves but the hardest part was having to "pretend" to eat and enjoy for the camera, because of course we couldn't actually eat the food until the film crew were happy with the footage!

Some of the seaweed degustation menu 

I can't recall all the types of seaweed or foods we ate eventually, but we had a sauerkraut, top left, local pork prosciutto with samphire, thin slices of pepper beef with seaweed spinach and wild garlic and a rich labne with a seaweed pesto, all artistically presented on an eclectic mix of vintage and contemporary plates. We also drank a kombucha made with pineapple and seaweed, and for desert some chocolate seaweed bonbons and a seaweed toffee brittle. 

After we actually did eat the lunch (delicious!) we headed down to nearby Derrynane Beach, where John talked us through the procedures of collecting the various seaweeds, safety precautions, and identified at least half a dozen types that we had eaten for lunch. 

Derrynane Beach

In a normal workshop, John would give a lecture first and then forage later, but this was an unusual day, and everything we did was not done once or even twice but many times to get the actions just right to sync with each take. 

I certainly hope my acting skills were up to it, not that I needed to act because I was so interested in the identification of the seaweed and how to use it in everyday food. The health benefits of eating seaweed are enormous, and John had all the facts and figures off the top of his head, informing us about Vitamin B6, omegas and gut bacteria. Seaweeds were the very first vegetables humans ate and the precursors to all our land plants so it makes sense to include them back into our diet ....and they can be free if you collect in the right areas and prepare them correctly.

What a fantastic day and what a truly unique Irish experience for me - plus I got to meet my IG friends Kerryann and John. A day of laughter and banter was cemented over a few pints in Bridie's pub when we finally called it a wrap! If you are ever around Caherdaniel way I would recommend doing something completely Irish, local and authentic like the seaweed workshop because it is something you will remember long after each spectacular coastline and touristy destination becomes a distant memory.

Cill Rialaig Artist Retreat

Tigh Josie Cottage with the green door, Cill Rialaig

Arrived at Cill Rialaig in Ballinskelligs last Thursday afternoon to start my residency - a short two weeks but hopefully a productive one. Cill Rialaig is situated in the restored ruins of a pre-famine village, on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean. It perches high above the ocean on a rugged clifftop and the only sounds are the birds, the waves, the wind  and the sheep in the paddocks. The nearest town of Ballinskelligs is 7 km away and it has a population of around 600. The other town of Cahersiveen is 20km away and there are several supermarkets and other shops there for necessities.

View from the mezzanine bedroom window

There are 8 restored cottages in total, one of which is the communal meeting house, Tigh an Comhra (Gaelic for House of Conversation).  I've been inside but we have yet to have any communal gatherings or meals there. There is also a laundry, presided over by Michael who keeps everything ticking over at the retreat. Each cottage has a mezzanine bedroom which is accessed by split wooden stairs - actually much easier to traverse than single steps because the gradient is so steep! The cottages are spartan but contain everything you need - sofa, chairs, tables and basic kitchen and bathroom. The studio end of the cottage has a glass roof with views to the sky and rocky hill right behind the cottage. It is amazing to stand in the space and feel that you are outside in, if you know what I mean.

Since I have been here I have been exploring the nearby beach and surrounding towns, the magnificent coastline and the ruined abbeys and castles that seem to spring up around every bend in the road. Because of my recent injury (fractured wrist...!) I am taking advantage of being driving around, and unfortunately any adventurous hiking is also out because my hand is still in a splint and I don't want to risk undoing the healing that has been happening over the last 7 weeks.

Sunrise this morning at 5am

Sunrises can be spectacular because the warmth of the rays starts burning off the mist that has settled over everything, obscuring the nearby islands and the other promontories. Slowly the landscape is revealed as the sun climbs higher. In contrast, I have been trying to capture the moment the sun sinks at around 10-11pm, but it is so elusive.  It is not the spectacular sunset we are used to in Australia, well not while I'm here anyway, it is more a gradual sigh of release at the end of the day....you are not even sure if it is setting or if it is just a figment of your imagination. I go to bed in the light and sometimes I wake up at around 3am and it is dark, but not for long.

Sunset over the Atlantic

On Sunday there was an art opening at Siopa Cill Rialaig, the Cill Rialaig Gallery, cafe and shop in nearby Dun Geagan.  Two of the artists staying in the retreat, Jane Seymour and Bina Shah were exhibiting together. Jane is a ceramic artist whose works are evocative of landscape, mists and layering of texture and colour in monochromatic tones.  Bina uses mixed media, cold wax, printing making and painting to evoke natural and urban environments.  The opening provided the opportunity to meet Noelle Campbell Sharp, the founder of Cill Rialiag whose vision for an artist retreat has seen over 3,500 artists stay here.

Noelle Campbell Sharp introducing Jane Seymour and Bina Shah

And in an amazing coincidence, I caught up with Irish textile artist, Nicola Henley, at the opening! I first met Nicola years ago when I had an exhibition at Timeless Textiles in Newcastle and she had arrived in Australia to also exhibit and conduct workshops.  Since then she has returned to Australia many times and we had planned to catch up when I was in County Clare, but fortunately she is a good friend of Jane's and attended the opening and is staying for a few days at Cill Rialiag...small world!

Catching up with Nicola Henley

I will post again with some of the amazing coastlines I have seen on my day trips around Ballinskelligs, beach fossicking, seaweed collecting and drinking in the inspiring landscape.

Glasnevin Botanic Gardens

Summer has hit Dublin with a vengeance and I am really enjoying the sunshine and long nights.....it doesn't get dark till around 9.30 or 10pm, so you can manage to fit so much more into a day.
On Monday I had an appointment to view items in the Glasnevin Botanic Gardens Herbarium which I had already identified months ago. Many herbaria simply do not have the manpower or resources to accommodate random requests to view their collections, so one has to have both the knowledge of the collection itself and the ability to work independently within that environment to gain access. Lucky for me I have some cred...haha....after this I will call myself "the seaweed whisperer" ...all will be revealed....

Glasnevin Botanic Gardens, Dublin

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View of the Palm House

Like the Herbarium at TCD, Glasnevin Herbarium was furnished with gorgeous old wooden cabinets and drawers, although most of the collection itself is kept in a steel compactus. Items I had requested were waiting for me, but I was also given free range to the unincorporated material which, to my mind, holds the greater interest because it is material that is not broken up into taxa and distributed within the scientific working collection. For me, this is where I can find untold stories, mysteries and give rein to my inner supersleuth.

The Herbarium

My primary object of interest was a 19th century album of Irish seaweeds collected by William Sawers, a collecting companion of my focal collector, Charles Morrison. I have documented approximately 15 Morrison albums now, and this album would enable me to pinpoint specific collection locations and times that they collected together. Comparison of handwriting on duplicate specimens will enable me to accurately interpret an album I will be viewing during my residency at the Ulster Museum Herbarium in a few weeks time. I have planned everything down to the nth degree for this trip as it is a once in a lifetime opportunity to get the final clues needed for me to finish writing  a paper and focus on new artistic work for an exhibition next January.

Sawers Seaweed Album

Here are a few examples of Sawer's album. Incredibly, there was also a letter attached from a botanist written  in 1952 who was also trying to determine the same things I was - the differentiation between Sawers and Morrison collections! Unfortunately she has passed, but I wish I could go back in time to discuss my findings with her.

Looking familiar, same but different!

The wonderful thing about life is it always throws you up something you don't expect, and on this trip so far there have been two collections which have not had information about them on file, but which I have managed to find provenance for, or add substantially to that knowledge. One collection was at TCD, and the other here at Glasnevin.

Encounter Bay Seaweed folio

In a listing of holdings there was an item called "Encounter Bay seaweeds" - no other information.
I had asked to view it but initially thought it must be a Jessie Hussey collection. Jessie Hussey was an Australian seaweed collector of some regard in the 19th century who lived at Port Elliot in SA and collected in Encounter Bay. She was a respected collector for Von Mueller and Agardh, the Swedish phycologist.  I followed her footsteps last year, collecting at Encounter Bay, and introducing my husband's young nephew to the joys of mounting seaweeds and beach fossicking.

One of the many Plocamium specimens from Encounter Bay

This huge folio of over 90 mounted specimens was definitely not her style - there were no collection locations or dates and the specimens were very repetitive - very much an amateur collection, yet impressive in its size ( each sheet was 75cm in length)  and expensively bound. I carefully sorted through each fragile specimen. This was no easy task as many of these collections are either covered in soot or dust or, even more insidious, chemicals for preservation. This means that it is necessary to keep washing your hands at regular intervals....tiresome, time-consuming, but not negotiable. As I was sorting through the specimens, one of the pages had a name on it - the only one in the whole folio. It was Hon. G. Hawker....wow...who was that??? The Keeper and I had no idea but a quick internet search by me found that the Honorable G. Hawker had been  a prominant and well-loved politician in the SA Assembly from 1858. He arrived from the UK in 1840 with a Bachelor of Arts from Trinity College, Cambridge, and went into sheep farming. At the time of his death he was one of the oldest JP's of the district, and was one of the longest serving member of the SA Parliament in history. I didn't find any direct refernce to seaweed collecting as a hobby, but it's early days yet and I haven't finished with the Hon. Hawker yet! More sleuthing abounds........

Hello from Ireland

My blogging has been suffering ever since I started posting on Instagram, but I am about to make up for lost time during my 6 weeks in Ireland. Many of my readers will already know of my interest in seaweed, or more particularly, seaweed albums of the 19th century. This obsession started in 2016 when I had an arts residency at the NMA in Canberra, and fell in love with an anonymous seaweed album.

The Port Philip seaweed album, NMA

This obsession lead to the discovery of many more albums by the same collector and I am now in Ireland to undertake further research on him as artist in residence at the Ulster Museum Herbarium in Belfast. I will also be doing an arts residency at Cill Rialaig near Ballinskelligs on the south west coast of Ireland, which starts at the end of this week. A big thankyou at this point to artsACT for supporting my travel to Ireland to undertake this residency.

I touched down in Dublin two days ago and have been walking around getting a feel for the city and its ambience. The predominant matter to hand has been the vote yesterday on the referendum to repeal the 8th Ammendment of the Constitution which bans abortion in all cases except to save the life of the mother. This is a vote to repeal, not a vote on abortion as such, and counting the votes starts today, but watching the news last night there were many counties with 50-75% turnout to vote, although voting was still open till 10pm, long after I had crashed!

Trinity College Botany Bulding

My first full day yesterday was spent in the Trinity College Herbarium where I had organised to view their seaweed albums. This was a rare and wonderful opportunity, and although my collector was not represented there were several other intriguing albums to compare and contrast with our Australian ones.

Trinity College Herbarium

Several of the 19th Century Seaweed albums in the collection

A page showing some beautiful red seaweed

Trinity College Herbarium was the academic home of the eminent Irish phycologist William Henry Harvey. Harvey notably wrote the 5 volume Phycologia Australica, after spending two years from 1854-6 collecting over 20,000 Australian seaweeds. And yesterday I was privileged to handle his handwritten letters and his Traveling Set of Australian seaweeds. This has to be a 12 on a scale of 1-10 in amazing experiences, to know that my hands were touching the seaweeds he picked up from our shores all those years ago. I am so grateful to Staff at TCD for allowing me access entrusting me with these historical documents and objects. And don't worry, I will be going back on Tuesday to see the Book of Kells!

The Herbarium Library also contained the volumes of “The Nature-Printed British Sea-Weeds” by Bradbury and Evans, published in 1859. These intricate prints were created using the unique “nature-printed” process whereby a plant is pressed into a plate of soft lead, leaving an impression from which an electrotype is made. The resultant prints are incredibly detailed and realistic, capturing the fine detail of each seaweed, and it is possible to see and feel the raised surface of the printed inks on the paper.

Front page of one of the Bradbury Nature Printed Seaweed books

A gorgeous Delesseria sinuosa.

Punctaria latifolia

Sphacearia scoparia

Its been a great first couple of days here sightseeing, walking, walking and trying to decide whether the national pastime is smoking or drinking....! Off to the National Botanic Gardens tomorrow to see more suprises in their herbarium.

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2018 Workshops and News

I could tell 2018 was going to be a busy year when it started off with a full class at Sturt Summer School. I had a great bunch of students, some of whom had never done any textile dyeing before, so I was really happy with the outcomes, and they were happy to learn all about printing with mordants.

Happy smiles all round! the Mordant Printing Class of 2018 at Sturt.

Since then I have been contacted by several Textile groups in various parts of Australia for some private workshops and I have finally (!) put some of my own workshops up on my website.

Organic indigo vat and resist printing and intro to shibori workshop

First cab off the rank will be an organic indigo and resist printing workshop  24th and 25th February - more information can be found here

Explore the local area, forage for dye plants that reflect the terrain

On 11 & 12 August a new workshop entitled "Local Colour & Dye" will combine foraging for plant materials and using scraps from the kitchen to create wonderful complex colours. Click here for more information.

Learn how to print with mordants to achieve a variety of colours and tones in
the one natural dyebath.

And lastly, the ever-popular Introduction to Mordant Printing workshop will take place on 8 & 9 September. More information here.

I will be overseas in the middle of the year undertaking two arts residencies - more about that exciting news closer to the time!

I hope you make 2018 a year to explore your creativity and connect with like-minded people who share your passion for textiles!
Best wishes
Julie

To Scour or not to Scour? A Galling question....

2018 was off to a good start as soon as I unloaded my van in preparation for the Sturt Summer School. I had a full class of students eager to learn the basics of natural dyeing and then to progress to mordant printing.

One of the most important aspects of all dyeing is the preparation of the cloth beforehand.  All too often we are in such a hurry, we misinterpret 'scouring' to mean "a quick rinse or wash in the washing machine".  Whilst any preparation has to be better than nothing on store-bought fabric, failure to take the time to ensure the fabric is free from grease, oils, dirt and sizing will result in patchy and uneven dyeing, leading to disappointment and waste of time and materials.

Below is a photo of already-whiter-than-white PFP (Prepared for Printing) linen tea-towels that I buy to print on with pigments. The water-based printing emulsion is mixed with concentrated fabric pigments which are screen-printed with a design. Once perfectly dry, the tea-towels are heat-set to bond the resin-based print-paste to the fabric.  It will only ever sit on the surface of the fabric, not inside the fibres as in dyeing.

However, in order to dye these tea-towels (in either natural or synthetic dyes) they must be scoured thoroughly first.  I figured not much would happen but at least I was doing a practical demonstration of the scouring process to the students, most of whom were beginners. 

Was I wrong!! The photo below shows the water that the 5 teatowels were scoured in - can you believe the colour of it - almost looks like a dye itself!!! After this photo was taken I started the process again and scoured the tea-towels a second time. The second lot of scouring water was paler than the first, but not entirely clean.  Given that each scouring should take around 2 hours, we rinsed them and went onto Galling the linen in a Gall Nut soak before we could mordant them the following day. This demonstration clearly shows that whilst the linen tea-towels may be PFP, they are not PFD (Prepared for Dyeing). This is an important distinction if you are buying fabric from a wholesaler to dye with.

Scouring water from the white linen tea-towels

Another important process in fibre preparation for immerse dyeing that is commonly omitted for cotton is the galling or tanning of the fabric or fibre before dyeing. This process literally 'tans' the cloth so that the mordant will attach more readily to the fibre, which in turn attracts the dye. I must admit that I have been a culprit in the past, but Joy Boutrup and Catharine Ellis converted me to galling  cotton when I attended a two week intensive course with them back in 2013. Galling can be done with a number of different plants but I prefer to use the Gall Nut method as it is fairly colourless.

I set up several experiments using store-bought tabby weave cotton fabric;  fabric that had been untreated and unwashed; fabric that had been unwashed, unscoured but mordanted in alum;  fabric that had been scoured and mordanted in alum; fabric that had been scoured and mordanted in Symplocos; and fabric that had been scoured, tanned in Gall Nut and then mordanted in Symplocos. We then dyed the pieces of fabric in a Weld extract dyebath for one hour and observed the differences between them once the samples had been washed, dried and ironed. 

The richest colour and most evenly dyed sample was, not surprisingly, the one that had been scoured, tanned and mordanted in Symplocos.  About one shade behind were the scoured and mordanted samples and the cloth that had been neither washed, scoured nor mordanted was the worst dyed sample of the lot. The differences were easily seen by eye, however did not really show up on camera, hence no photos.

In theory we should also have done a test that included a step with Turkey Red oil for the cotton, but in a 4-day workshop this was unfortunately one step too many!

In my next post I will show some examples of what the student's achieved in the four days, or if you are on Instagram I have posted a few of them @julierydertextiles.

Indigo reflections

I have been doing a lot of indigo dyeing now the weather has warmed up, and it has been really satisfying to wake up my three vats, warm them up and attend to their individual needs. These vats are all natural vats mostly using henna as the antioxidant, although one of the vats which I have had for a few years now, got a dose of over-ripe bananas last summer after my indigo workshop at Sturt Summer School.

This year I will be teaching Introduction to Natural Dyes and Mordant Printing, and there is only one place left, so if you are interested, go to the Sturt website and enrol!

Two weekends ago I ran an Indigo intensive Workshop from my home, where I am in the process of planning a purpose built studio. I wanted to test out how everything would work running classes from the downstairs space, and I had 8 eager students as my innaugural students.

Unfortunately our hot summery day disappeared and we had rain for most of the day but that didn't dampen our creativity or good humour! I ran through the process of making up an organic indigo henna vat from scratch (which then gave us the luxury of 4 vats to work from) and some beautiful pieces were made as you can see below.

One thing I stress to students is the attention paid to preparing the fabric before dyeing and also after dyeing in indigo. The finishing process is very crucial to ensure that the indigo is fixed inside the fibres and not just sitting on the outside, where it will quickly crock off. After rinsing in cold water several times after oxidation, and then neutralising in a vinegar rinse, it is important to then place the cotton fabric into very hot soapy water. As Joy Boutrup explained, this serves the dual purpose of getting rid of any excess indigo pigment on the surface of the fabric which has not been trapped inside the fibre, and at the same time swells the indigo molecule that is inside the fibre, ensuring that it is now trapped and cannot escape. In a recent Instagram post Aboubakar Fofana also stresses the importance of correct finishing of the indigo dyed fabric.

I'm off on a short holiday to Singapore and will post something on the textiles while I am there.

Cheers for now!