The Mad Hatter by John Tenniel

The Craft Council of BC (CCBC) will be hosting an Afternoon Tea Extraordinaire from 2:30 – 5pm on Sunday, October 17th at Hycroft House – featuring an eclectic/formal tea service, and of course, hats! The CCBC is planning a number of fun and unusual activities throughout the course of the afternoon – tea leaf reading; tea tasting, fashion show and more, as well as prizes for the most outrageous and creative hats worn by our volunteers and our guests.

Proceeds from this event will go towards funding the new CCBC programs. BC was recently hit with severe funding cuts in the arts. Maiwa is providing table dressing for the event in addition to items donated for auction. Please come out and support BC Craftspeople, this event has the makings of a sensational afternoon.

Tickets can be purchased online on the CCBC web site.

Charllotte Kwon and Ismail Mohammed Khatri in India

Natural Dye Photo Sharing on Flickr

Today marks the mid-point of Charllotte Kwon's Natural Dye Workshop. Yesterday the class worked through over 80 dyebaths. We've noticed an increasing desire from students to document the results and processes through photos - and a need to share these photos with one another. After the workshop is over, when students are working on their own projects they often have a similar desire to share the details of how they got their colours.

To support this growing community we have started a group pool on Flickr. We have seeded it with our own set of photos showing natural dyes on Eri Silk. Each photo has the dye and mordant details in the description. We hope this online space can be a common area that can contain some of the enthusiasm for natural dyes once the workshop is over.

The Natural Dyes group is open to anyone with an interest in natural dyes - not just those from the workshop. We encourage your comments and discussions.

Here's the link:

Natural Dyes http://www.flickr.com/groups/1435067@N24/