The Final Workshop

To end the 9 week project we were lucky to have a special guest from Duchy College to discuss and share her knowledge. Ann is a Botanist, a person who studies plants in great detail, often using microscopes to look very closely at them and see how plants are made and how healthy they are.

We were taught how to make pollen: this was done by using pollen from the Lily flower, placing the pollen in a Petri dish and adding sugar water.

We then had a look at all the fresh flowers, seeds, plants and greenery to see if we could label and name their specific parts.

Then, using microscopes, some of us for the first time ever, we had the opportunity to dissect or to take the plant apart and study its organs under a microscope.

We then went back to look at the pollen under a digital microscope to see if we had created pollen, the results showed that we had and our experiment was a success.

The Garden

Indigo Workshop

Using Indigo to dye fabric. Mixing together chemicals and Indigo crystals and adding to water at 50 degrees Centigrade, don't stir because air makes bubbles which reduces the colour. Hold in there for 5 minutes, dip in vinegar to seal...wow..the blues emerge infront of our eyes...magic.

Newlyn School Work Hard

Dylan:

I liked making are own paper.

Andrew:

I liked tie dying material the best.

Sadie: I loved the dying with beetroot the best!

Jasmin:

I liked tie dying the material.

Chloe

I like making the paper because it was so much fun!

Rebecca

I liked planting flowers and herbs in the garden!

Evan

I liked dyeing the cloth!

cleo

i liked the dying the cloth and learning some thing new

Jamie

I liked the dying of the cloth using onion skins and acorns.

THANK YOU!!! From Francesca, Sarah and Kirsty and Sara & everyone at Newlyn Art Gallery.

More Tips on Dyeing Paper Pulp

Mixing dyes into the pulp.

Paper dyed with beetroot and oak galls that had been soaked beforehand, by Newlyn School.

The 'couching' process pushes out moisture from the pulp mixture and flattens it into paper.

In the second session of paper dyeing children from Newlyn School worked with pulp that had already been soaked for at least 24hrs in plant dyes. The first group used beetroot dye and the second used oak gall dye. They then added more dye using pipettes and stirred in some decoration and 'binding' materials e.g. Calendula (Marigold) petals, chopped onion skins, Hydrangea petals, threads chopped from scrap materials.

The pulp has a very thorough stirring and it is great to work in pairs to do this-1 person to add the dye and 'binding bits' and the other to stir the mixture so that it is all blended in. This pulp is then pushed through the mesh frames as before, this process takes a while as all the moisture needs to be pushed out of the paper pulp and flattened in a process called 'couching'. Newlyn School were brilliant at this, working in pairs and being very patient with the moisture removal.

The paper is layed out flat to dry out as before and ironed when it is damp to help flatten and thin it.

Sarah Gatter, Creative Practitioner.