Dyeandprints

06/10/2024

If I were to teach a workshop in your area, what topic would you be interested in learning about?

02/10/2024

The emotional "load" in our textiles...

I moved home several times since 2015 as I wound my way down from the big city to the Little Karoo, searching for a place to settle. During this time I had boxes that I did not unpack because there was little point in unpacking anything that was not functional to my daily living. Now that we are in a more permanent home with time to unpack and really live with my things, I am trawling through the boxes to discover long lost treasures that are imbued with meaning and emotion.

As I strip away the items that I care about less and re-distribute them where they will find new value, I ponder over the items that I am unable to let go of and wonder at the emotional "load" attached to so many items from my past lives in other places. Some of them are way heavier than others and evoke feelings of melancholy and sadness, while others have happy attachments that I enjoy reliving again and again.

These two garments came out of a box this morning and even though I do not have children, I covet and keep them because of the memories that rise up when I see them. I smile wryly as I remember why I have them. They are two garments that I dyed for a very famous South African fashion designer called Marianne Fassler for her children's range under her Sibella label around 2007. These were actually two "rejects" because I got the color wrong that I had purchased from her because she was unhappy with the result.

Today these "rejects" hold special significance for me as memories of an earlier time in my career when I made a lot of things within short time constraints. Now my making process is more organic and playful and some of my projects take me months to make as they become what they want to be.

I unpacked them and looked at them, and then folded them up and put them back in the box. This is still a memory that I want to revisit so they are going back in the box for another time. While it makes absolutely no financial sense to drag items like these around with me, these items are some of my most precious personal treasures.

Do YOU have items like these in your world?

I would love to hear your stories about why you keep them in the comments.

21/09/2024

Thank you Kim Thittichai for sharing our conversation with your networks. I appreciate it VERY much and am super excited about the content that you are planning to add to the online course that we are putting together for the members of the Up-Cycled Cloth Collective community.

I thoroughly enjoyed this chat with Melanie Brummer from The Up-Cycled Cloth Collective. It was amazing to be able to see and speak to Melanie in real time a...

03/09/2024

When I was a full time traveling teacher, I needed a "uniform" that I could teach in that people would associate with me specifically.

During this era of my work I spent many weeks of the year on the road traveling around the country to teach. In 2014 I was home for only 20 of the 52 weeks in the year. The other 32 weeks were spent immersed in the teaching experience with my students all around Southern Africa. In the picture on the right I am working at the Williston Winter Festival.

I remember how happy I was when this dress first emerged from the black dye that I had decide to apply for the finish. In the first picture you can see my joy as I opened it up for the first time to see what I had made.

When it was dry and I tried it on, I realized I would NEVER wear it as it was. By a twist of fate the dress had lighter patches on it and the lightest one of all was positioned directly over the crotch area of the dress, creating a disturbing focal point that drew the eyes. Focal points on certain body areas can be problematic.

I had invested so much money, time and energy in this new garment. I had purchased the cream base garment from Rheola's, where they produce high quality knitted jerseys made from pure cotton yarn. I had spent time binding and dyeing it, and now I could not wear it.

I put on my thinking cap and tried again.

I dropped the whole dress into a bath of red dye and my black and cream dress became a black and red dress. The red tone was darker so the the focal points that I had unintentionally created all blended into a more even tone.

The dress had been saved! I was able to wear it without people staring.

Because it was such a dark color, it was very forgiving when I splashed other colors on it while I was teaching and in the end, it became one of my favorite dresses for teaching in.

I wore it so much that it developed large holes in the skirt that were eventually irreparable, so I cut it up to use on other projects.

This garment and fabric are sentimental to me because of all of the wonderful memories associated with it.

Do YOU have a garment that you wear a lot that you will be sad when it is no longer wearable? What makes this garment special to you?

20/01/2024

What would happen if...

In 2015 I wondered what would happen if I took my Dream Map that I had created on paper and turned it into a bunch of Facebook Groups on related topics.

Along the way it became fun to experiment as I learned more about Groups and I tried things like naming a Group for the most popular search terms that people were likely to use for a specific topic. The experiment expanded...

Today I am so thankful to my past self for starting early to build my online networks even though I was not entirely certain at that time what I was trying to sell. I have two hundred Groups on various niche topics and some of them do better than others. Two of them have more than 120K members.

Many of you are asking me questions about Facebook Groups as you think about using them to grow your networks and the best advice I can give you is to start now. It takes time to begin feeling the traction and the longer you delay starting, the longer it will take. Even if you build rudimentary structures now that you can evolve over time as your path forward becomes clearer, it is better than waiting until you are sure and ready, and then having to start with zero followers and a well developed sales message that nobody wants to hear.

If you would like some help with your process, there are two ways that I can support you...

1. Book a one-on-one coaching session with me @$189USD per hour. We can spend time on Zoom doing a deep dive into what you want to build and ways that you could build it.

2. Sign up for my online course for $99USD and work through the process that I lay out for you in the material to get your dream map up and running in cyberspace. You can read more about it here at this link...

https://melanie-brummers-academy.thinkific.com/courses/how-to-use-facebook-to-grow-your-creative-business

With 200 Facebook Groups I can share my experiences about what has worked for me and what did not work for me and I can save you a world of heartache with some useful tips and ideas that will save you time and get you closer to your goals.

Reach out to me today if you would like to learn how to use Facebook to grow your creative business.

02/01/2024

Many of you have been fascinated by my recent lino printing Reels and a few of you have asked me whether I teach lino printing.

I also have a Facebook Group for my students called We Love Lino Prints On Fabric.

If you are interested in learning how to print your own fabrics using this easy, direct method, reach out to me directly.

I read today that lino printing on fabric is on the endangered list of skills in the UK and the USA. This leaves me feeling compelled to teach more people about this craft before it dies out in the world completely.