Indigo fun at Folk School!

INDIGO DYEING WITH GASALI ADEYEMO Oct. 20-25, 2013

Mart, me, Gasali, Judy, Mom

Just back from another wonderful week at John C. Campbell Folkschool.  I went with two State College friends, Mart and Judy and my Mom from Cleveland.  It was a wonderful week.  Gisali is a native Nigerian from the Yaruban tribe.  The Yarubans are known for their indigo fabric.









Indigo grows wild in Nigeria.  They harvest the leaves

Indigo ball from Nigeria

and pound them into tiny bits in a wooden container with big wooden poles.  When it is chopped into pieces, it is mixed with wood ash.  Handfuls are scooped out and pressed into balls and dried.  These are used to start a dye pot.

Before our class started Sunday evening, Gisali took about 95 of these balls and placed them in a big pot with water.  They needed to sit for three or four days as they ferment.  As he put them in the pot, he called to the "Lady of the Indigo" saying her name three times and praying the into would work.

Sunday evening we met for a little while. Besides our four, there were 8 other students and our able assistant, Charlotte.   Gisali welcomed us and told us a little about the history of indigo.  Since just dyeing fabric blue would be a boring week, we would be learning how to put designs on our fabric. These are called resists as where the design will be resists the dye.   There were four types of resist we would be learning:
                                 Adire eleko is a paste resist.
                                        If someone just says Adire, this is the
                                        technique they are referring to.
                                 Adire oniko is a tied resist
                                 Adire alabere is a stitched resist
                                 Adire alabela which is a wax resist, the Yaruban version of batik
Gisali himself is a wonderful teacher - very gentle and soft-spoken, caring greatly that his students enjoy the process.  He laughs a lot and answers questions carefully.

After our introduction, we were dismissed and could go to our cottages and collapse in bed.  It had taken two days of driving to get here.  We were glad to sleep.

Monday, while the indigo continued to ferment, we learned Adire eleko.  This flour paste is mixed from Cassava flour.  Cassava is ground from the root of the plant and is either the same or very similar to tapioca flour - either way it is the root of a yucca plant.  Cassava is a staple of the Nigerian diet.  For dyeing, it is mixed in a saucepan with a little blue and white alum.  It is mixed about 2 parts water to 1 part flour, and cooked over low heat, stirring constantly.  After about 20 minutes, it began to thicken.  The goal was to get it to the consistency of runny mashed potatoes.  When it was scooped out of the pan, it would run slowly off the wooden spoon.

We had 22" squares of fabric which we divided into quarters.  We were given a dollop of paste on a paper plate and a paper cup of water with a chicken feather and a broom straw.  The chicken feathers curve in different directions, depending which side of the chicken they grow on, and it made a difference whether we were right or left-handed.

Most of the design is applied with chicken feathers.  These are dragged through the paste.  Then a dabbing motion is used as it is pulled along the fabric to create a design.

Once our designs were finished, the fabric was set aside to dry out of the sun.  Applying the paste is a fairly slow process, so creating our fabric pretty much used up Monday.

My cassava piece before dyeing

Moms cassava piece pre-dyeing

Tuesday we moved on to batik, my favorite of the four techniques we learned.  Yarubans use foam rubber cut to a point and shaped like a fat pencil to apply the wax.  Paraffin (not beeswax) is melted, in our case, in an electric skillet, or frying pan over an electric burner.  The foam rubber is dipped in, and then used to draw on the fabric.  Faster movement results in thinner lines, slower in thicker.  The wax temperature was a problem - our burner didn't control it well - too cold and it wouldn't work, too hot and it spread.  That just added design elements, though.

Tuesday afternoon we took time out to watch a documentary about Yaruban indigo.  (an exerpt can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn_6zinf7cI), which showed the process from harvesting the leaves all the way to finished product.

We also learned some of the Adire oniko, the tied resist that day.  The first technique was "pigeon eyes", where you pinched a bit of fabric and wrapped it tightly with raffia, which had been soaked to be pliable.  "blades" were made by accordion pleating a bit of fabric, folding it and wrapping it.  We used both techniques on one piece.  We took these home in the evening and worked on them while watching the community contra/square dancers.  Mart danced all the dances with a big smile on her face.  Judy, Mom and I enjoyed watching.

Pigeon eyes and blades all tied up

Wednesday was the most exciting day as Gisali told us the indigo "was dancing".  When it is ready, the leaves rise to the top and lots of bubbles form (and it smells its worst, although I didn't mind the smell).  This meant we could dye!

The dyeing process is fascinating.  When the fabric goes in, it immediately turns bright yellow-green.  As it comes out, it oxidizes in the air, and turns a deep blue right in front of your eyes.  Really fun!  We died our batiks first.  They didn't really care how long they stayed in the dye.  After dyeing, the were drained into buckets so we could reuse the dye, then laid on the grass to begin drying, then eventually hung on the line.

The Cassava resists had to be treated more carefully, or the flour would come off and no design would be left.  They were quickly dipped in and out, then laid out to dry.  The were dipped multiple times to allow the dye to darken.  When ready, three people would stretch the fabric taut and someone would use a knife or spatula to carefully scrape off the flour.  The designs were subtle, somewhat disappointing, although we are told that once we set the dyes and rinse them at home the design will show more.

My Cassava piece

Mom's cassava piece

Once the batiks had been dyed, we put them in boiling water to soak the wax off, then immediate in cold water to remove wax flakes.  Finally they were ironed on news paper to remove the last of the wax.

One of my batiks - I had to add penguins!

Mom's piece - the guy in the upper right is a little man made out of a pine cone and pipe cleaners that
Mom had bought and was in the house when we were growing up

We learned another wrapped technique in the morning, this time using waxed linen thread.  This was called "Fila" or hat as when it was tied, it gathered the fabric up into a conical hap shape.  When opened up, it was supposed to make a spiral of little circles.  Most of us need to work on spacing to make that more obvious.

Gisali with a fila - this is 2 1/2 yards of fabric all tied up.
The pice behind him was waht it would look like untied.

In the afternoon, we learned a stitched resist where you folded the fabric a couple of times and then whip-stitched tightly across it.  This makes lines.  Often they are done in a horizontal, vertical and two diagonals at which point they call it "four way stop sign".  I coupled mine with a little more batik.

We took our wrapping and stitching with us to watch some of the community dance groups practice Wed. night - clogging, Garland dancers and Morris dancers.  Always one of my favorite things to watch.

Thursday we had learned the techniques and had time to finish wrapping, and stitching.  Some, including me, also chose to do a little more batik.  By the end of the day, everything was dyed and drying.  If the stitch and tied things had already dried, we could undo the wrapping/stitches and see what we had.  It was like opening Christmas gifts.

my fila opened up

pigeon eyes and blades

Thursday evening we watched  documentary called "Blue Alchemy" about indigo use all over the world.  It struck us how almost every culture treats the indigo dye bath as something living and worthy of reverence and respect.  That was certainly true for the Yaruban people.  It has brought so much to so many people.

Friday we only had half a day which was dedicated to removing more ties/stitches, cleaning up and enjoying each other.  We had had time to get to know each other as we talked while applying our resists.  Plus, we only had one community dye pot, which meant we worked together to create our pieces.  As a result, by the week's end, it really felt like our classroom was a very special community, and each person was an important piece of it.

At 11, we took our pieces to the community room where there was an exhibit with each of the 14 classes showing off what they had done.  Then lunch, and a sad farewell to Folk School.  A very special week!

Student exhibit

Earlier in the week, a little kitten had been abandoned at Keith House.  One of our classmates, Laura, decided to adopt her (her name is Possum).  Before the closing ceremony, mom and I got to meet her.  What a sweetie!

Possum and her new mom, Laura

Mom and I meet Possum

getting ready to depart

Goodbye Keith House

View from the top of US 129 (aka the Dragon" or "The Dragon's Tail")

Santiago to the Falkland Islands (Port Stanley)

December 29, 2012

Flying over the volcanos of
Southern Chile

Today the real adventure began!  We met our bus at 5:30am to go to the airport.  All of the people on our boat were on that flight as it only goes once a week.  The bus drivers had a fit trying to get all the luggage on, but finally managed. Antarctic travelers tend to have fairly large luggage pieces.  (Side note: the traffic pattern is bizarre; to get to the hotel, you pass it a ways, turn right, pass it a ways, turn right, pass it a ways, turn right, pass it a ways, turn right, and drive into the parking lot; all with signage telling you how.) We flew from Santiago with a brief stop in Punta Arenas, and then on to Mount Pleasant in the Falkland Islands.  Steady rain and colder temperatures greeted us.

Andes seen from the air

Gwandwana Tillites - When a glacier pushes along
rock and gravel,  it is called till.  When sediments pile on
top, it gets compressed and becomes rock called tillite.
This one formed before the big continent split into
separate continents.

Once through customs, we were given stickers to put on our baggage with room number information, and a bag lunch.  We then either boarded a geology bus or a shopping bus.  The shopping bus went straight to Port Stanley and the geology bus made two stops along the way – one was to look at a kind of rock called a tillite that had been part of the original Gondwanaland before it split apart into separate continents.  Gondwanaland was the name of the "supercontinent" that most of our current continents were once part of.  The second stop was to look at “stone runs”, which is a feature we also have in PA – large rocks that have worked their way up to the surface.  Basically the argument is that as the ground freezes and thaws, things freeze and thaw at different rates, causing some movement of the rocks.  It is easy for little rocks to slip between bigger rocks as they freeze and shift – not so easy for the big rocks to move under the little ones.  So eventually the big rocks work towards the surface and the little ones end up underneath – counter-intuitive if you don’t think it through.

Rock run - large rocks worked their way up.

We got to Port Stanley with just a little time to look around and buy a couple of penguin things for souvenirs.  Didn’t buy much, but it was fun.  Port Stanley is the biggest town in the Falklands, and it is about two streets wide.  There was a little visitor's center/post office, where you could buy Falkland Island souveniers and post cards, and you can mail the postcards there.  There were a couple of closed stores and then there was a store that sold nothing but penguin things.  That, of course, was my favorite.  But we only had a few minutes as the bus to take us to the ship was due, and with all of us either in the visitor's center or the penguin store it was crowded, so we didn't stay long.

Then we got back on the bus (turned out to be the same bus and driver) and we were driven to the dock where our boat was waiting!

Akademik Ioffe - our home until Jan. 17, 2013

Living Room

As we boarded, we were given nametags and shown to our room.  Rick and I have a bedroom that is big enough for one double bed and a small nightstand and no more.  There are two drawers under the bed where Rick has his clothes, and a small closet where my clothes are.  

We also have a living room with a couch, table, counter space (with an i-pad and three pairs of binoculars provided) and a refrigerator and coffee maker.

Wing of the bridge - we go out here
when there are exciting things to see.

Searching for wildlife from the bridge

My one complaint with the ship is that the only windows are portholes, rather high up, so if you want to watch what is going on, your choices are to be up on the bridge (they have an open bridge and are almost always welcoming, unless they are casting off or doing some tricky navigation), or outside on deck.  Most of the time, there is a naturalist up there, helping us see birds 
and whales. 

Almost as soon as we were settled it was time for an appetizer and dinner.  The dining room is large enough to seat all of us in a single sitting, and dinner is when we get announcements and a schedule for the next day.

Being on a boat full of like-minded people really interested in geology is a wonderful experience!  Every one is very friendly and easy to talk to.

After dinner we had our mandatory lifeboat drill, and then headed to bed.  As we unpacked, we had a very sad discovery – our newest camera is no longer with us.  We had it on the Andes trip, and are not sure when it disappeared afterwards.  We think, but could never prove, that it was stolen on the flight from Santiago to the Falklands when part of our luggage was taken away because it was a small plane and they didn’t want it all for carry-on.  But we still have two decent cameras with us, so all is not lost.  But it did make me very sad.

Chilean Andes

December 28, 2012

 

Today was our Andean Condor adventure.  We boarded a bus at about 8 in the morning and headed out of Santiago into the Chilean Andes.  Most of our day was spent on “40 Bend Road”, so called because of the 40 switchbacks along the way.  I think there were more, but I guess it depended on what you call a switchback.  We climbed from close to sea level to about 9,000 feet, stopping along the way to look for birds.  We had some great views of Condors in flight, and also found striated caracara (a type of raptor), a variable hawk, and some other birds.  We were also treated to seeing a southern red fox running across the road.  We looked at lots flowers and pretty views.  I was surprised at the cacti growing along the mountain.  Our guide, who was wonderful, was hopeful of finding some blooming, and maybe we’d get to see the giant humming bird, but we failed on both of those.  Our guide was from southern Chile, where, among other things, he leads a trip to look for pumas, and so far has 100% success rate.  That would be a fun trip to do.

It was a glorious day, though the road was twisty enough I had to take a Dramamine to get through it. Janet would not have liked the drive, as there were lots of places with steep drops and no guardrail.  And several places with crosses and shrines where people didn't make it.  The road is the only road up to several major ski resorts, so in the winter it gets VERY busy and, at the same time snowy.  Not a good combination.

Rick started in on his job, and did commentary on the geomorphology of the sites. 

Another Condor!

Southern Red Wolf

Condor!

Variable Hawk

But on this trip, highs were in the mid-80's, so snow didn't seem to be a worry.  And skies were blue, though tomorrow in the Falklands it is supposed to rain.

When we came home we learned we had been at about the epicenter of a 4.2 magnitude earthquake!  Since we were on the bumpy road at the time, none of us noticed.

Home in time for some dinner (much earlier than Chileans usually eat – they were surprised to see us in the dining room at 5:30, although some other folks from our trip were there, so we weren’t the only ones.)  Rick’s cheeseburger was about as big as the plate, with cheese both above and below the meat. Then back to the room for some repacking and bed.