The Last Dance – A Time Honored Tradition for Dyers

I took my first serious dye workshop in 1972 (that certainly ages me doesn’t it). I had been dyeing on my own, but was plagued by colors I didn’t know how to create, and I could find no one in Iowa who had any more knowledge than I did. Thus, I was very excited to learn about a week long course at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. The instructor was Mary Frances Davidson, a petite ball of fire who was probably near 50 when I took the course. There were very little books published on Vegetal Yarn Dyeing at that time, but her little paperback book helped me to find her. I arrived on the Arrowmont campus as a poor college student with my treasure trove of cherished little hanks of yarn – all dutifully wound into small skeins using my hand and elbow as a niddy noddy (a skein winding device I did not yet own).

Mary Frances Davidson - Vegetal Dyeing Pioneer
 Photo Credit - www.lib.utk.edu/arrowmont/history_arts_founding2.htm

When I arrived, I very seriously told her I was there to learn how to create colors I did not yet know how to do, implying of course, that I was not a novice dyer.  When she queried what those colors might be I rattled off a short list, which I no longer remember, except for one. I wanted to learn to dye the iridescent green color on the back of a mallard duck’s neck. “Well!” she said, “You certainly don’t want much, do you”, as she picked through my stash of yarns I had carefully collected for this momentous week. Her skilled fingers quickly plucked the jewel of the stash – a beautiful glistening skein of brushed mohair.  “I’ll see what I can do”, she muttered as she walked off smiling.

As the week went by, I did learn to create many new colors, but kept an eagle eye out for my skein of mohair in all the dye pots. I lay awake at night wondering how she would do it, especially with the dyes that were there. On the last day, my hopes that she had dyed my skein were sinking, as I had never caught a glimpse of it in the dye pots or on the drying racks. As we were packing up our week’s worth of work in small skeins with copious notes, Mary Frances came over and said “Here, don’t forget this one!” I could hardly believe my eyes as she handed me the most beautiful skein of yarn in a dark green, just like the color on a mallard duck, the luster of the mohair adding the iridescent quality. “How did you do this? I want the recipe!” She smiled as she was walking away, and said, “You think about it for awhile, all the dyes were here in class.” Like the Good Witch from the Wizard of Oz, she clicked her heels, and left the room, as I stood dumbfounded, staring wide-eyed at the now empty dye pots and wondering how in the world she got that color. As the clicking of her heels receded down the hallway, I thought well that was a “last dance” I will remember.



Weeks worth of dyeing at the Arrowmont School. Cira 1972
 Photo Credit - www.lib.utk.edu/arrowmont/history_arts_founding2.htm

For years, the color remained as illusive as ever. Finally, when I was a full blown, professional dyer doing large orders for demanding fashion designers and had raised my craft to an art which allowed me to jury into the most prestigious craft shows in the tri-state area, I mastered the art of creating that wonderful color, but more importantly realized what she had done for me.  She left me a goal to work towards so I would keep dyeing, in search of new colors and new techniques.

I have shared that story with apprentices and at the many dye workshops I have taught through the years. Some of those students have looked at me horrified, and asked if I was going to do the same to them, as if I was with-holding information they had paid for. So I learned to be a little more subtle, and as I cleaned up left over bits of dyes accumulated during the dyeing session, I would make up a dye bath I have always called “ The Last Dance” or “ Until We Meet Again”. There is no recipe – just a reflection of the days of laboring over simmering pots and heated ovens, and the desire to constantly take the art and craft of dyeing to a new level.

Here are the photos of “The Last Dance” and “Until We Meet Again” from a week long dyeing session with my Floridian friend Ginger.

May you all have friends to dye with and may you never tire of searching for new and exciting colors and dye techniques!

Linda