Spinning, dyeing and weaving has taken over the cottage! Part of this take over, as mentioned in another recent spinning, dyeing and weaving post, is what came to be known as the ‘Project’. The aim was to take raw fleece through all the processes, to end up with a finished textile item – a scarf.…
Lanhydrock is a late Victorian Gothic pile deep, deep down in the West Country, near Bodmin in Cornwall. But turns out it’s an easy drive from West Dorset along the A30 (at least it is out of season), skirting the top of Dartmoor and going across Bodmin Moor. The main reason for visiting Lanhydrock is…
Spinning, dyeing and weaving are taking over. Looking back, it’s only been a little over a year since the first spinning wheel came into the cottage and a less than a year when it comes to looms. But looking around the other day and there was fleece and yarn at various stages of processing everywhere.…
Christmas Stockings – well they have to be red don’t they! And when it comes to natural dyeing nothing does red like cochineal. Cochineal is expensive, it always has been. Highly prized for centuries as producing the best reds for textile dyeing. When it arrived in Europe following the Spanish conquest of Mexico it was…
Eeles Pottery is in the village of Mosterton, on the road between Beaminster and Crewkerne. Despite having driven past it countless times this was the first visit (they were open as part of Bridport Arts Week) – long overdue. It is a truly family affair. David and his wife Patricia set up their home and…
Bonfield BlockPrinters is a the sort of place that you either have to seek out or you stumble upon by accident when you least expect it. Cameron Short and Janet Tristram set up in the old stores in Thorncombe, a hidden away village tucked into the furthermost corner of West Dorset. Off the beaten track…
The Weald and Downland Living Museum is a bit of a trek from Dorset, a few miles north of Chichester in the South Downs National Park. But it made a great stopping off point on a trip to Kent. It’s an open air museum, where they have rescued old houses, cottages and other rural buildings…
Samplers – real proper, really old ones – are a marvel to behold. Montacute House in Stoke-sub-Hamdon, Somerset is the home of the Goodhart Collection – one man’s gathering of 17th and 18th century needlework gems. Needing a breath of fresh air on Boxing Day it was a treat to discover that Montacute House was…
