Indigo results

We hung all the indigo samples on the back wall of the house in Summerville! What fun to see
them all in one place. The agreement was that the stamps were beautiful, but difficult
for first-time users. I'll definately be doing more of this in the near future.

One of my samples is turtles in the upper left corner...after I wash out the original wax,
I'll re-wax, and dye again. LOVE it!

Arianne Batik Banner

This banner was made in FIFTEEN DAYS! Arianne and a group of women in an African village made it for a ceremony. It is about 12 feet long, and more than 6 feet wide. Wish you could have seen it in person!

indigo part 2

Two pieces drying in the shade. Don't dry them in the sun, the wax will melt!











The group, happy with a successful class! Karen E, Cheryl, Bev, Joanne, Kathy and Arianne. You can see the row of fabrics drying in the shade.


















An electric skillet, with melted wax and stamps sitting in the wax.

indigo and batik

Hi,
I'm in Summerville, SC, just outside of Charleston, with five girlfriends for a WEEK of
sewing and fun. Today was just the most perfect day! Joanne arranged for a class with Arianne King-Comer, an indigo batik artist. Arianne is from NY, has travelled to the west African countries where indigo dyeing was born. She has been living in North Charleston for 14 years, after discovering that this area also has a rich history of indigo dyeing. Her artwork is awesome!


She had some fabric and two boxes of awesome stamps for us to play with. Some of the stamps came from the African countries, some came from Read's Fabrics in Charleston. They are carved from wood...the photo of two stamps is to the right. We also used 'paintbrushes' made of chair seat cushion for the free hand part of our experiment.







This is a batik sample Arianne made in a class she took with batik artists in a country that none of us can remember! It is about 10 feet long by about 4 feet wide.











This is Arianne showing us how to use the 'paintbrush'. Notice the necklace she's wearing...it's a traditional memory necklace. It is to remind the wearer to let things go. She adds to a leather strap beads or stones from special places, and when it breaks, it reminds her that we move on.












This is Kathy removing a piece of fabric from the dye bucket.
When the fabric comes out of the bucket, it's green. The color changes once the dye is exposed to the air, changing color in just a few minutes.

Izamal

This is the roof-top patio of our room at the Hotel Macanche in Izamal.
The B&B is a fairyland of gardens, peace and food! Each room is an individual house, built
in the traditional Mayan style. The four of us shared one house, with one bathroom. It was very comfy and very pretty.









Stuart, enjoying an arrival beverage, in the open-air reception, dining room
and gathering area.


My dinner! Oh, what a great restaurant at the Macanche! We ordered our dinners early, and picked our serving time. The kitchen was smaller than the kitchen in my apartment in Merida, and the staff was one woman and her helper. So, guests at the Macanche are assigned meal times, to keep from overloading the cook. This evening, I had a fabulous sopa de poblano, and fish tacos (pictured here). It was the best meal of the trip!



There are only 7 rooms at the Macanche, all tucked into a beautifully planned garden.
Foliage and flowers, trees and a few veggies created a very quiet and private place to
wander or read. The pool was blasted, and the rocky bottom was so pretty, the owners
kept it natural. The water was cool, but it was refreshing. The owners are yoga teachers, and the yoga palapa was beautiful! Emily was away while we were there, but we learned of future yoga retreats on the calender.

The reason to visit Izamal is to see the pretty village which is painted all the same golden color, and to visit one of the oldest pyramids in the Mayan Empire. The village is very small, and quiet. We walked the back streets, and found a some artists at work, carving wood or making papier mache butterflies. There are very few cars or trucks on the streets, everyone gets around either on a bicyle or horse and carriage, which makes the streets very quiet and pedestrian friendly.

We stayed at the lovely Macanche two nights. Salli and Doug headed back towards Cancun, where they are flying back to the States, and Stuart and I caught a bus back to Merida. The four of us had a VERY good time, and agreed that we travel well together!

more Celestun, lunch

Oops.
Mangrove swamp!










Sunday lunch in Merida, with mama, Salli and Doug.

Celestun

Salli and Doug, Sunday in the zocalo! Their first day in Merida, and of course, we enjoyed the street vendors for lunch.










Thursday, Jan 15, 2009
We caught the early bus to Celestun. It's overcast again, heavy dark clouds. Windy, too. This is sssoooo unusual for this time of year! This is the boat/tour guide rental booth on the beach at Celestun. This is a major bird stop-over location for all kinds of fall and spring migrating birds. There is a larger pink flamingo colony here, too. We hired a boat here, with a french couple, and ran south along the coast then up the river and eventually into the magrove forest. We saw many brown pelicans (whose bellies hold more than the billicans!), white pelicans, soprey, ahningas, cormorants, frigates and pink flamingos. And, this is the off season!



Our boat, and Captain, Poni (little horse he told us!).









We stopped at a petrified forest - salt water washed over into the fresh water area in a huge 1980 hurricane. There was quick sand here, too. The most interesting part of the trip was seeing the shrimp fishermen. They were in the river, in water that is chest deep. They have small boats, about 10 feet long maybe. The fishermen get out of the boat, turn the boat sideways to the current, and PUSH the boat against the current, with a net dragging behind them. Walking against the current for three hours at a time. And we think we work hard somedays.

In the mangrove swamp, we say giant termite nests in the trees. There was a cenote, too, where we stopped briefly, to walk on an elevated walkway, to stretch our legs. Some people were swimming, but it was too cool today for me.

When we got back to the beach, three hours later, we ate a delicious lunch of fresh fish and shrimp, and walked in the sand for a while before catching the bus back to Merida. It began raining just as we got on the bus.