Bjo's Dyery

Behind the scenes with Master Hroar the Potter

2009-08-21T08:53:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week, we received an email from Master Hroar and I thought others might be interested in this peek behind the curtain.

Master Hroar is the potter behind Two Hearts Entwined Pottery, and has worked with clay as an independent potter for the past 30 years.

Now then, from Master Hroar:
I know you guys have seen the soup bowls glazed in shino before, but this time I used Dixon Clay from Arrdvarks. The results a pretty awesome, I feel. And the clay is damn interesting to throw with! 8-)

This one is in the Dixon clay, which is considered a sculptural clay. VERY course with tons of heavy grog. Which means I LOVE throwing with it! 8-) Besides the heavy grog, it also has lots of RIO in it. This influences the glaze color considerably.

The glaze inside is a brown I make, the covered inside and out with Coyotes Shino. It was dipped with the handle side down, and up to slightly beyond the middle. Allowed to dry, then the procedure was the same on the other side. So, in the middle, we have a double layer of shino, single layers on the ends.

the same as above is true for this soup bowl.

I wanted to show the coarse nature of Dixon Clay on a fired piece. Also, a rubber kidney was drawn across it to help somewhat smooth it. Still, the grog does show.

On these oil lamps, I used a blue glaze I make, and poised it off the Coyote Purple Blue glaze. I feel very satisfied with this glaze. It is very subtle, and seems to work at its best advantage on a white clay body. Any darker and the subtlety is lost. Here, the gold blush comes through nicely, as does the purple and the blue. Also, this is a single dip. Any more and there is the danger of it running. I know; I have had to grind a few pieces from that.

Computer Problems

2009-08-13T16:53:00.000-07:00

Bjo's laptop hard drive died so she's going to be offine for a while. She fully intends to blog more regularly in the future!

In the meantime, why not check out the upcoming Fiber Frolic or perhaps the hundreds of photos we have of past Griffin Dyeworks Events?

2009-06-22T08:01:00.001-07:00

Whew! Well, I thought I would get back to blogging in a big way, but several things happened to prevent that:

I had a series of fibromyalgia flares that were more painful than usual and interfered with getting a good night's rest. This left me very tired and depressed.

Potrero War, a large Society for Creative Anachronism event, where I taught a natural dye class and a period pigment class using natural earth colors. Though the classes were announced for adults, children showed up for them, too. That's fine so long as said children are mannerly and really interested in the craft. My youngest dye students were 13 years old and they showed a swift aptitude for color. My youngest pigment student was 5 years old and she did a very good job. But the event was long and tiring.

Griffin Dyeworks Fiber Retreat was the next weekend after Potrero War. I was not rested up enough to go into an intensive weekend of crafts teaching and learning. The Retreat was wonderful with classes being taught everywhere in the Verdugo Oaks Scout Camp, and participants learning as fast as they could. The Sunday display of projects was just amazing and inspiring. But I was left exhausted.

During this weekend we learned that three people were in the hospital; one with a burst appendix (she is recovering), one with a serious diabetes reaction (he is recovering) and one who died from a blood clot. Sigvaldr will be sorely missed.

The next weekend was another SCA event: Coronation and Queen's Champion, which we attended because friends were stepping up as King and Queen. This extra activity pushed me well beyond my limits and I dragged myself around for two weeks trying to recover. This was entirely stupid of me, and I need to stop treating myself like this!

So getting my act together to post really interesting blogs with nifty photos has been delayed. Be patient. I will get things sorted out soon, promise.

We leave on July 3 for a trip to Billings, Montana, to visit John's sister. This is our annual vacation away from all our activities. I'm taking my Mac laptop to catch up on blogging as well as edit my Dye Basics book to post on the Griffin Dyeworks website.

While on the Billings trip, we will visit friends along the way and I will teach a 2-day dye workshop (yeah, I know....) -- Bjo

Busy, busy month of May

2009-05-14T12:26:00.000-07:00

May has been a VERY busy month.

I am working on a mud-dye and rust-dye tutorial for our upcoming Griffin Dyeworks Fiber Retreat and sewing on several projects.

We saw the Star Trek film at Paramount Studios thanks to Gene Roddenberry's son, Rod. We saw it again the next week with friends in the Valley. We like it. Of course there are nits to pick: I don't like Vulcan female garb - on a planet with a standard 140 degrees F temperature, it would be illogical to wear anything close-fitting or heavy. Any starship THAT close to a black hole would be toast. Stuff like that. But in general, it is a good nod to the original Trek while allowing them to go in a new direction. That is a Good Thing, really. The old Trek was too tired to be revived with any success. Love the young actors who played Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty and Uhura. Doohan would have liked this Scotty, I think.

The whole family participated in Minnie's Midnight Madness, an unusual team-builder held every year at Disneyland. This is held after the park is closed to the public. We get into costume and give out clues to teams of Disney cast members (employees). The teams have paid to compete for some really nifty prizes. Outsiders are used for the clue-giving to lessen the chances of cheating. And some of them do cheat. We've been clue-givers for the past 5 years and enjoy it thoroughly.

This year we were a Robin Hood clue corner so we could wear our medieval garb. I handed out the stickers for the clue-gatherers envelopes that they have to hand in. John played King Richard, wearing Lora's viscountess coronet. Lora and Kathryn were over in the 70s Disco Gong Show clue, which was so popular that people came back after they'd handed in their questionaires just to dance!

I made Lora widely flared bell-bottomed purple slacks for the game, and repaired a vintage lettuce green polyester leisure suit by adding rust-red fake suede cuffs and pockets for the game show host. Very funny.

We had several one-day and weekend SCA events to attend as well. In our capacity as Baron and Baroness of the Angels (greater LA area) we are expected to appear at these events. So it is lucky that we enjoy doing it. However, it does take up a good deal of our weekends if we let it.

Now we are getting ready for Potrero War (a large 4-day SCA event) where I will teach a dye class and a period pigments class where we make our own egg tempera. I thoroughly enjoy teaching crafts.

It is also important to bring Griffin Dyeworks & Fiber Arts to everyone's attention so we can build up the business. When I teach dye workshops, I always have flyers to hand out. We've only recently introduced the pigments and a really nice period pigment kit for people who would like to try the art of illumination without spending a small fortune. Go visit our website and see!

After that, over the May 29-31 weekend, we will have our ever-wonderful Griffin Dyeworks Fiber Retreat in the Tehachapi Mountains above Castaic, and that's the end of May! Whew!

As soon as I get a few minutes to sort myself out, I'll post some photos, too.

Back again after a short pause...

2009-04-23T21:58:00.000-07:00

Only two years later, I am re-blogging (is that a word?) with so much more to tell anyone who has found this blog or who may soon find it. I will be showing a lot of my dye workshop photos here as well as dye recipes for those who would like to learn about natural dyeing. Watch this space!

Meanwhile, though we are still in Monrovia, our Griffin Dyeworks business address has changed to: 174 W. Foothill Blvd #343, Monrovia, CA 91016. This is _not_ a store front (don't we wish!) but simply a mail-drop to ship our online and mail orders from. If you show up at this address looking for us, you will meet some very friendly people who won't tell you where we live. Sorry!

The reason for having a mail-drop is because it's cheaper to get UPS deliveries at an official box than home delivery. I have no idea why this is.

The reason we don't have a store-front is lack of money. Nobody has shown up with scads of money to back our business venture, either. So we still have our Corporate Headquarters in one-third of the family garage.

One of my major dreams is to have a crafts center, not just a store, that could house a small crafts store, a supplies store, a large crafts work space, and perhaps even a tiny tea room so we can get snacks on site. This would not have to be in the center of town. It could be in a safely-lit light industrial area, or in a large old house in a commercial area, or other such building. One such fiber crafts center was in a defrocked church. It was really neat.

I have found a great building in Monrovia that was once one of Charlie Chaplin's many small movie studios. But there is no way we could afford the entirely reasonable lease for it unless we could round up a goodly collection of other artisans who wanted to rent a space. I don' have the business head for this kind of thing. Vision, yes. Business, no.

So it's not likely to ever happen for me unless I win the lottery or one of you Out There wants to set me up in my dream.

Disneyland, Christmas, 2006 recap

2007-01-25T15:02:00.000-08:00

DISNEY DAZE: We’ve been going to Disneyland on Christmas Eve day with friends for several years now. It’s a loosely organized day starting when the park opens, going until fireworks. We don’t meet at someone’s house and leave in a group because that’s like herding cats and nobody gets anywhere on time. We go to the park individually and call each other once there. Naturally everyone must wear a silly hat so Kat and I wore our light-up Xmas trees, which is about as silly as you can get. We had a grand time at the Golden Horseshoe Saloon where a hillbilly Elvis impersonator flirted outrageously with Cate. Though John is rather ‘Disney’d out’, he enjoys people-watching plus the Peter Pan and Buzz Lightyear rides. He got a kick out of Fred, the humorous clean-up man, who informed a group of us that the bench we were sitting on was not a ride so there was no use waiting for it to take off. Fred also pointed out that it was already Christmas, since we were in Tomorrowland, and with a cheerful wave, he went off to sweep up more trash.

Our eldest daughter, Kathryn, not only loves every square inch of D’land, but has become an ardent pin-trader, as have Lora and me. Kat has no interest in value, she just loves the pretty pins that have some meaning for her; a memory, favorite movie, etc. Some pin-traders are very rude to cast members (employees), but Kat asks nicely and thanks them for trading with her so they usually give her tips for things to look for and let her trade from both the adult’s and the children’s lanyards. Lora looks for Stitch pins where all 6 legs show but made a concession for the 4-legged Elvis Stitch. She also likes Nightmare Before Christmas pins, especially the Jack Skellington. I collect whatever takes my fancy, such as the Norman Rockwell parody with Mickey painting his self-portrait: Walt Disney. I got an Edna Mode from The Incredibles in memory of my mom, who worked in Edith Head’s wardrobe department at Warner Bros, and would have appreciated the send-up of her personality.

Now if the park would only set up a Living History section in Frontierland where pioneers in period garb could gather with spinning wheels, dyepots, and table looms to show visitors how it was done ‘Way Back When. Seems to me that if the reprieved White House Thanksgiving turkey has a place at D’land, you’d think they could find room for a few fiber artists. Even if done only on weekends and holidays, it would be a valuable educational attraction.

Looking back: 2006 had its ups and downs, but at least we have moved forward a bit. Christmas was loads of fun. We don’t really observe it religiously, but we like the decorations, music, gifting, getting together with friends and relatives, plus a few orphans of the storm who for whatever reason don’t have anyplace else to be. Lora got more penguins for her collection, plus a Swiss rifle to shoot skeets with Jason. John got a beautiful hand decorated griffin box from me (made by Judith Kingsbury ska Miriam bas Levi); I’m trading SCA garb for it. Kat got several of her favorite gifts: Target cards. I got money toward my Mayan Highland trip (yay!) and the dogs got new wubbies to tear apart.

This year we had 20 people sitting down to a haphazard table arrangement of good food, great conversation, and family games after dinner, with a few more showing up for dessert. The family tends to ignore the dictum to invite only same-age people of like-interest, so there is never a lag in conversation. Everyone brought a “Gee, Aunt Edna, you shouldn’t have” gift to fob off onto someone else, which was great fun. One person’s Aunt Edna is another’s beautiful gift. New Year’s Eve will be a games night; a good way to end the year. We raise our hopeful eyes to 2007 with the sincere wish that all of you get everything you ever wanted.

THANKS: We continue to owe heartfelt gratitude to many people who helped our little business grow. Our son-in-law, Jason, quietly does nifty things like feed a pack of people without notice, keep pitchers of iced tea and fruit punch on the table when we need it while packing for events or making up kits. Daughter Lora takes time away from her own business at The Big Tease Hair Salon to help at workshops and in booths. Daughter Kathryn helps refill rinse buckets and run errands at dye demos and workshops. Kathy Santineau and Todd Etzel have been wonderful helpers in our merchant booth as have Katherine Zon and many others. Roberta Brubaker cheerfully shows anyone who stopped in our booth how to spin on her 150 year old Great Wheel. The Blue Nails Dyers Guild and the Dyen to Ply Group pitched in wherever they could and we are very grateful to them. Overall, we’ve got a huge amount of things to be very thankful for, and all the wonderful people who have helped are at the top of that list!

Dyeing with friends & teaching

2007-01-24T15:21:00.000-08:00

BLUE NAILS DYERS GUILD: Another Yahoo list I’m on is the Blue Nails Dyers Guild, a loosely organized group of fiber enthusiasts, particularly dyers, but it is open to all who love fibery things. We welcome all like-minded souls who enjoy dyes of all kinds: natural, laboratory-made, earth oxides, even powdered drink mixes. Those of us who live near each other in Southern California gather for occasional hands-on dyeing and experiments with all dyes and dye processes.. Online, we talk about dyes and dyeing, exchange research, give out information, answer questions that newbies come up with, and enjoy each other’s company. “Blue nails” was a medieval derogatory term describing the color of indigo and woad dyers’ hands so it’s time the term got some respect. The nails shown here are medieval finishing nails; heraldic puns were common practice back then. Though many of us are members of The Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA), the Blue Nails Dyers Guild is not strictly limited to this group, but open to all. Join us for discussions, announcements, workshops, and dye demos!

TEACHING CRAFTS CLASSES: For an all-too-brief time this fall, I taught 24 to 32 developmentally disabled adults in the Villa Esperanza Services Adult Day Program. The ADP is held at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Pasadena, California. My students’ disabilities included dementia, cerebral palsy, severe rheumatoid arthritis, Down’s syndrome, other types of retardation, hearing and sight impairment, Alzheimer’s onset, and a variety of other problems. Some of them had several disabilities, which made teaching even more challenging. It was daunting but exciting to redact crafts and sewing projects to a level that many of the participants could handle. For some students who had no eye-hand coordination or whose physical problems would not allow them to use the floor pedal, I put it up on the table to press on by hand. That got very exciting because the person holding the fabric through the sewing machine had to say “Stop!” early enough to avoid a well-sewn thumb. We turned out some fun items, including elegant pillows with woven trim centers that delighted my students. They had never had such beautiful crafts materials to work with.

But there came a sad day just recently when I really could not deal with some of the administrative personnel without appearing on the evening news. So I am no longer collecting crafts and sewing donations for ADP. My wonderful former students don’t even understand why I left, so it would hurt them to see me arrive with donation boxes but not stay to teach. Locals are welcome to drop by the church or bring donations to the Villa Esperanza office, corner of Craig and Villa, Pasadena. Alternatively, collect crafts and sewing donations for your local retirement homes, which are always in need of something to do. Or bring donations to your Youth and Children’s Activities people. All these agencies are on severe budgets, so can use just about anything you can donate.

More Cons, Treehouses, and Games!

2007-01-23T15:15:00.000-08:00

MountainCon II: John and I were invited to MountainCon II in Salt Lake City, where we were reunited with long-time fellow convention guests, Walter Koenig (Star Trek’s Chekov, Babylon 5’s Bester) and Richard Hatch (Battlestar Galactica), both of whom had lots to say about their current and future projects. This was a small fan-run convention with several local guests who once worked or still work in the film industry. I’d tell you about them, but I have hit a mental brick wall with names (fibro fog) and have no notes handy. I like small laid-back conventions a whole lot more than the larger ones where one is always running around trying to find someone or something.

TREEHOUSE MUSEUM: Before the convention, we were given a tour of the Elizabeth Stewart Treehouse Children’s Museum in nearby Ogden. Lynne Goodwin, wife of artist/cartoonist Michael Goodwin, is the museum administrator. We met Lynne when she started showing her artwork with husband Michael at science fiction conventions. Lynne does lovely fantasy art when she has time for it; Michael is known to Trek fans for his hilarious space cartoons.

We were enchanted by the Treehouse Museum. Every kid of any age dreams of a treehouse like this one! If you’re in Utah, be sure to see this unique children’s museum; it is truly one-of-a-kind. The museum has a fund-raising gala where, among other worthy goodies, a doll house is auctioned off. I offered to make a lighted miniature tree for the 2007 doll house. I’m using this holiday season to find Lilliputian items for a miniature Christmas tree. Others are interested, so the project may expand to a whole Christmas doll house, if we can find a large (but affordable) Victorian doll house kit.

ASTRONOMICON 10: John and I were also Guests of Honor at Astronomicon 10 in Rochester, NY. We flew in to Boston a week early to spend time with our darling foster daughter, Jenn, and her husband, Chris. We had a great time at their house for a few days, then Jenn drove us to Rochester. Chris was working on some computer deadline so didn’t join us. In Rochester, we found how to walk around a city without touching the ground; very unusual to people who don’t live in snow country. We were happy to be introduced to the Dinosaur BBQ, which served some of the finest meats and hot sauces since we left Texas.

The convention was a small, friendly event where we had the pleasure of meeting several very interesting people, including SF writer, Julie Czerneda, and her quietly funny husband, Roger. Her work is Asimovian in sheer sense-of-wonder alien scope, with less scientific explanation, and more character exposition. I’d already read her latest book, In the Company of Others, before the convention, and have since read her first book, A Thousand Words for Stranger, which kept me up all night to finish it. Now I am eager for more of her writing!

LOONEY BIN GAMES: Another interesting thing that happened at Astronomicon was ending up in the Game Room, which is a convention area we Trimbles seldom enter. John and I just aren’t into that much intensity for hours at a time with a whole convention going on around us. But we do play family games and are familiar with one of the games in-vented by Andrew Looney of Looney Bin Labs. In fact, we’d had Fluxx explained to us awhile ago, by a group of very drunken people, which seems the only way to explain that convoluted card game!

Andy and Kristin Looney are delightful people with a totally skewed sense of humor – a trait necessary for the people who produce such games as Nanofictionary, Chrononauts, Treehouse (different from the one in Utah), Just Desserts, Martian Coasters (the coasters can be used for beverage glasses if needed), Are You a Werewolf? (dressed up Mafia, a game of deception, paranoia and mob rule), and several Fluxx variations. John wondered what happened if you shuffled Stoner Fluxx, Jewish Fluxx, and Christian Fluxx together.

Kristin uses tie-dyed game tablecloths, which she says with a straight face are their corporate colors. Andy is a major Trekker, so we got along famously to the envy of daughter Jenn, who is an avid Fluxx fan. By the end of the convention I was an official Blab Rabbit but John has not so far gained that vaunted position. Obviously, he needs to work on his game. I’m not game-knowledgeable enough to be a true Looney Bin Lab Rabbit to test out the games. But we Blab Rabbits can tell others about the games, and share in the fun! Looney Bin Labs

Doctors, Ice Cream, and Space

2007-01-20T09:57:00.000-08:00

FAVORITE SAYING FOR TODAY: "Disagree with anyone about anything, but just don't be disagreeable about disagreeing."

Written January 19, 2007: Well today was medical for the Trimbles. Friday is John's day off, so we got up at Ugly O'clock to drive clear across Los Angeles to the University of Southern California Dental School. I got a thorough exam and casts taken of my teeth by a charming young lady nicknamed Sako, with whom I will be working throughout my treatments. John went to his dental appointment with another student and got three teeth pulled. I wasn't prepared for that.

After that, I had lunch (John's mouth was full of cotton) and we drove back across LA to San Gabriel to see my doctor. We got sidetracked by a Fosselman's Ice Cream parlor, so I took the "can't seem to lose weight" problem off my complaints list. I hold by the theory promulgated by a grand old ice-cream maker who claimed that ice cream cannot possibly have any calories. After all, calories are units of heat, right? And ice cream is frozen, right? I rest my case.

The doctor said I was doing fine but my blood pressure is a bit higher than usual. Since I usually have "normal low" blood pressure, this is not a problem. When I told Dr. Castro that I was going to the Chiapas Highlands to learn backstrap weaving and Mayan dyeing, she said it was no surprise that I had slightly elevated blood pressure. She also referred me to the Pasadena Health Clinic for my Mexican trip vaccinations, and recommended that I get a tetanus booster, too.

By the time we got home, John was one miserable puppy. He put new cotton in his mouth and took a nap. Then Jason came home and fixed John some scrambled eggs and hot biscuits for dinner. We've got such a super son-in-law!

COMET McNAUGHT: Has anyone seen the comet? This is one of the most spectacular space visitors we've had in a very long time, and we are sooooo frustrated that the best views are on the other side of the world from us! McNaught is visible from the Southern Hemisphere, with a head almost as bright as Venus and with a fantastic curved tail. It looks more like a sci-fi magazine cover than anything else. View amazing photographs at Space Weather News: http://spaceweather.com and then click on all the great daily photos. Anyone in the Southern Hemisphere should go outside at sunset, look west and see for themselves. Get on the Space Weather list by contacting: swlist@spaceweather.com

VENUS AND THE MOON: Here is something both hemispheres can enjoy. Saturday, January 20, the crescent Moon glides by Venus at sunset, forming a beautiful ensemble in the western sky. Look for the pair just before the sky fades to black. Venus and the Moon surrounded by twilight-blue is a scene of special beauty. Visit http://spaceweather.com for observing tips and updates.

Conventions

2007-01-19T14:19:00.000-08:00

We very much enjoy conventions, where we get to meet a lot of fellow fans, talk all night, and give our lovingly humorous History of Star Trek slide show, which Jenn wants to put into Power Point for me. I think that’s a very good idea since many conventions no longer work with slide projectors, and the ones they have are usually in really bad condition, or the light is burnt out, or the right cord wasn’t brought along, or something else has gone wrong. However, with everything on a CD, we could show it on a laptop if necessary. John and I attended only 3 conventions in 2007, which surprised and disappointed me since it was Trek’s 40th birthday, and I sorta thought we’d hear from someone. We didn’t, so that certainly put me in my place! Oh well...

LACON IV: The 64th World Science Fiction Con, familiarly known as L.A.con IV, was held on August 23-27, 2006 at the Anaheim Convention Center, where we observed Star Trek’s 40th anniversary with a Babel Conference Ambassadorial Reception.

John and I hosted this gala Star Trek event which started a long weekend of special Trek guests, exhibits, programming, and other Trek activities. Reception Master of Ceremonies was “Trouble with Tribbles” author David Gerrold. We were assisted by daughters and sons-in-law: Lora and Jason Boehm, Jenn and Chris Eplett. We had only one other big guest attend. However, since it was Chase Masterson, dressed in something very shiny and extremely skimpy, she raised a few blood pressures!

Fans who knew Chase as red-headed Leeta the D’abo girl on Deep Space Nine were surprised to see her as a blond for the film noir project she was filming at that time.

The beautiful caketop design was by Gina from the LAcon print department. John and I were on several panels and other program items. I particularly enjoyed being on a panel about getting youngsters to read, especially to read SF, with author Larry Niven and several librarians. The audience was notably filled with librarians and teachers. I mentioned Reading for the Future and found that many were already familiar with RFF and its goals.

There is an excellent media-oriented LAcon report at http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/news/index.html.

LOCKS OF LOVE: Daughter Lora and a friend, Cate Manzo, did two days of hair-cutting especially for Locks of Love in the LACon Exhibits hall. They remember being the weirdo kids in school because they liked Science Fiction and fantasy. But they could at least blend in; a bald kid can’t do that.

They met with outright hostility from long-haired fans who evidently thought that two professional cosmetologists would chase them down the halls with snarling scissors. Most of those worried souls could have done with a good hair trim rather than look like a Eukanuba Show entrant, but no one will ever convince them of that. However, there were also generous donors of hair for children who need wigs, some of whom had grown their hair just for this purpose. The ladies also collected cash donations to help pay for wig-making supplies.

You don’t have to wait for a convention to donate hair. Just call around until you find a hair salon that does this special hair-cutting (sadly not all of them will do it). Anyone, any gender, any race, any age, can donate 10” or more of freshly-washed DRY hair. Or bring that long braid of hair in. This is such a simple way to help build a child’s self-esteem. If you know a child who needs a hairpiece, please fill out the Locks of Love submission form at their website: http://www.lockoflove.com or call them at (561) 963-1677.

Dye & Fiber Retreat 2006

2007-01-18T13:33:00.000-08:00

We had a smaller Dye & Fiber Retreat this year than in 2006, but that was mainly due to the wildfires that scourged the Tehachapi Mountains between Los Angeles and Bakersfield. Watching the local news on TV it often looked as if Camp Verdugo Oaks had been lost in the conflagration, and we could not get any news for a long time. Everyone was on tenterhooks wondering if the Retreat would have to be canceled at the last minute, while I fussed about people coming from a distance who could not be reached in time to prevent their trip. Especially one participant who was arriving a week early from Sweden!

But the fires were finally conquered and our Retreat site ended up, as Ranger Terry described it, “an oasis of green in a vast sea of black”. The Forestry Service grudgingly allowed us access to the camp since there was little else that could burn. When we got there, we found that the fires had burned out the camp’s archery and rifle range, but all buildings had been saved.

Those who attended the Retreat had loads of fun while learning more about fiber and dyeing from our excellent fiber teachers. Barb Klessig (The Dread Viscountess Seelie) was an enthusiastic addition with an entertaining slide show of Northern European textile finds. Jennifer Tan, one of our new teachers (Tunisian crochet) brought her 7-year-old daughter, Joey, who gave a child’s-eye Retreat Report at Spindlicity. You can also read my 2006 Retreat Report.

We welcome one and all to the 2007 Retreat, which is still in planning. Join the Retreat discussion and tell others about it, too!

Snow!

2007-01-17T17:20:00.000-08:00

Written January 17, 2007: Sorry for not dating blogs as I enter them. Just never occurred to me. I didn’t usually number my fanzines back in real publishing days with mimeograph and stencils until collectors of same asked me to start numbering my publications. Then I numbered one as “#4 or 5 or possibly 7” just to get a reaction. One of my early pulp paper fanzines was also named Bjottings. There are copies of it in the Riverside U. library.

Today I Googled for “Trimble” and, among other things, discovered that there is a Trimble GPS unit for sale. This is pretty funny considering that several Trimbles are not the people to ask for directions, excepting John. If you want to know how to get anywhere in Southern California, ask him, but be ready to take notes! You’ll get a whole lot of “… you take the 210 to the 134 to the 509 to the 1325 to the 1776 to the…. “ at which point my eyes glaze over.

One site that I can’t translate into a URL has, for no reason but the obvious one, a lovely semi-nude young lady at the top of the home page. Though the Google search part actually has a quote from this Bjottings, I found no evidence of it in the listings. But I thought maybe I could get away will claiming to be the pretty lady…

Aw, c’mon! I need some cheering up after getting my seriously ugly passport photo taken, and paying a heck of a lot extra to make sure the darned thing gets to me on time. Dead-on shots always look like one should have a set of numbers across your chest. But looking on the bright side, nobody else is ever going to claim that photo!

Anyone paying attention can guess that I’m getting my passport for the Mayan Highland Backstrap Weaving and Dyeing tour. It’s on! Whoo-hoo! Six people finally signed up. At least one of them knows me, so I assume the person is on the Natural Dye list. Not everyone has come forth to get acquainted before the trip, which I consider odd. I’d certainly like to know a bit about someone sharing 9 days in Mexico with me. But maybe that’s just me.

Anyway, it’s a revelation to check on one’s given name as well as surname now and then. I’ve discovered my own listing in Wikipedia, and wish I knew how to correct it. It’s pretty close, but there are bits that need changing.

Hope everyone enjoyed the photos taken last season of our lovely avocados. We won’t have such photos this year. The cold nights made most of the fingerlings (finger-sized new fruit) drop off our big old backyard tree. Larger avocados that already developed will have to be removed from the tree and ripened in the warm house. Then we’ll see if they are edible. The leaves have all been frost-bitten and look dead or dying, but we won’t know the damage for several weeks. If new growth comes out, we’re OK. My heart really goes out to all the avocado and citrus growers whose orchards were devastated by this unusual SoCal freezing weather. Farmers never seem to get a break. Several good years can be totally wiped out by having to re-mortgage the farm in bad times.

It's a good day to dye!

2007-01-12T15:57:00.000-08:00

We managed a few good dyeings this year, though not nearly as many as I’d have liked, mainly due to a full calendar and highly variable weather for ourdoors work. The Blue Nails Dyers Guild held a couple of dye days at Pitzer Arboretum gardens, one of the many Claremont Colleges, where we had loads of fun. This enjoyable outdoor venue is arranged courtesy of Ruth Schooley, a college complex librarian.

I’d hoped to get more work done on our on-going dye demo samples this year and even be nudged by Sherry Acton-Snowden into making that sample book. She plans to raid my baskets full of older dyed samples, putting them in booklets for better reference. Yay! This project is moving forward slowly with Sherry putting mordanted samples together for dyeing to show how dye colors change with the different mordants. You can find out more about mordants at our Griffin Dyeworks site. Maybe we’ll have more dyeing in 2007...

Last January Kathryn and I helped the Mount Wilson Girl Scouts with their Cookie Kaleidoscope Kick-off event in Arcadia Park, with the much appreciated help of Theresa Boscia, one of our webwrights, and John Trimble, all around water-schlepper and good sport. Various crafts were offered by companies and groups, including Griffin Dyeworks & Fiber Arts showing how to dye quilt or pocket squares with fiber reactive dyes. Natural dyes take too long to develop to use at a demo where the public – particularly children - has the attention span of gerbils.

When it started sprinkling, a few scaredy-cats packed up and left, but lots of Scouts stayed. Our craft was already wet, so though the rain got heavier, we stayed to the last, and are invited back for 2007. John, Kathryn and I also went to Simi Valley to help a group of Girl Scouts and Brownies get their textile badge/patch, since dyeing qualified as one of the textile crafts. Their dyeing enthusiasm included the puzzled willing Australian shepherd pet of the site owner. I assured her that the dye would not harm the dog and would eventually wear off his fur.

Medieval Embroidery

2007-01-11T16:07:00.000-08:00

Griffin Dyeworks is branching out from dyes and roving to embroidery since we can tap into some amazing talent in that area. We have found some wonderful embroidery designs and are currently preparing kits of historical designs.

Griffin Dyeworks has also self-published a truly informative book on the subject, written by Mary Jenkins, who is Baroness Ealasaid nic Suibhne in the SCA, and an excellent teacher of medieval embroidery techniques. This is a great book for other teachers of medieval embroidery techniques, so students can carry home a reminder of how each stitch is formed, see how stitches were used in a given century, the colors and cloth used, all in a well-illustrated book for only $20.00 plus shipping, so look in our BOOKS section in the Griffin Dyeworks & Fiber Arts online catalog.

NØSTEPINDER

2007-01-10T13:10:00.000-08:00

This is the plural of a very old low-tech Scandinavian fiber tool used in as a winder for making a center-pull ball of yarn. Norwegian: "Nest-stick”: nøste = nest; pinde = little stick; literally, ‘making a birds nest’. Also known as nøstie, nøsty, nøstepinne, nørstepinde, nystepinne, depending on which Scandinavian describes it. It’s also called a "dib-ble" or "that ball-winder stick thingie."

Griffin Dyeworks is proud to introduce Mark Lindsay’s turned nøstepinder, hand-crafted from beautiful woods. A plain old broomstick can be a ball-winder, but it’s so much more satisfying to handle a beautiful wooden Quinn nøstepinde, and show it off in your fiber basket!

Mark is retired but keeps busy with his small daughter and working in his home workshop. He is also active in the SCA, where he is known as Master Quinn Phelan, builder of full-sized medieval ballista, catapults and trebuchets used by C.R.A.C. (the Caidan Royal Artillery Corps). He and his hearty band of fellow throwers-of-large-things can be found at major SCA events on the West Coast.

Star Trek & Other Media

2007-01-09T11:54:00.000-08:00

If you showed up here expecting only expositions and opinions on media interests, you may be disappointed. You may find more about fiber arts and dyeing (that’s coloring fiber with dyes, not being laid permanently to rest) than science fiction, Star Trek, Stargate SG-1, and Firefly. I'm still a fan, and still read science fiction and fantasy, along with art books, travelogues, humor, crafts books, dye books, lots of mysteries, and even a romance or two.

Fandom has given us Trimbles so much to be thankful for, especially wonderful friends worldwide. I’m on the Fans of Deep Space Nine Yahoo list so you can talk Trek with me on that list. From there you can find loads of other Trek sites. I particularly like the USS Moontype which serves blind and partially sighted science fiction fans. Their newsletter, Lunar Landscapes, is available in large print, Braille, disc and email - contact USS-Moontype at sbcglobal.net. There is a really nice group of gay and lesbian Trekkers and Disney fans at: USSNautilus2001. One of my favorite Trek sites is Curt McAloney’s Star Trek History sites where he restores film clips, explores the reasons why some things are seen but never explained, and shares a lot of behind-the-scenes stories, jokes, and other information. Try film clips: Location scenes, jokes on the set, promotional pictures, FX information and other trivia: http://www.startrekhistory.com/

Rumors

2007-01-05T16:21:00.000-08:00

Let’s settle some stories that are circulating throughout various fandoms.

The Trimbles are not destitute. Not wealthy, but not bag people yet. Yes, we could use more money, so can everyone else except Gates, Trump, and Oprah. I am not on my deathbed from a stroke or heart attack.

John is doing fine after his heart attack 2 years ago, and at age 70 is healthier than many of his cardiologist’s 40-year-old patients. Aside from fibromyalgia and arthritis, both of which hurt but won’t kill me, I am doing pretty well for 73-going-on-74, and plan on a 2007 weaving and dyeing trip to the Mayan Highlands.

My 75th birthday goal is a trip to Denmark and Sweden to visit museums, attend Viking re-enactment events, and participate in an archaeological dig with Dan Carlsson, Associate Professor, ArkeoDok Blåeldsvägen 3 S-621 50 Visby, Sweden. Email: info at arkeodok.com for more information. Come join us!

The SCA

2007-01-04T12:38:00.000-08:00

You will read a lot about The Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc., a medieval historical re-enactment organization popularly known as the SCA. Many of our fiber activities and in-person sales are within the SCA. Here I’m known as Maestra Flavia Beatrice Carmigniani, Order of the Laurel (arts), Order of the Pelican (service). John is Master John ap Griffin, OP and once one of the best field heralds in the entire SCA. We are also Court Baron and Baroness, which means mainly that someone on the throne liked you a lot.

Griffin Dyeworks sets up merchant booths at several large SCA ‘wars’ or other events through the year, and though our activities are presently in the Kingdom of Caid (Southern California) and the Kingdom of Atenveldt (Arizona), we hope to soon have the wherewithal to travel to other kingdoms in other states with our wares. We’d love to have the money to travel to Pennsic War in Pennsylvania, but that’s a lot of high gas mileage from Southern California just now.

Some people are second and third generation SCAers (or SCAdians) including our own children, who grew up in the SCA and in SF fandom: Lady Kathryn du Griffin (Kathryn Trimble) and Viscountess Lorissa du Griffin (Lora Boehm, see picture above). Lorissa is Seneschal of Altavia. You don’t have to be an SCA member to visit an event or to buy medieval goodies from Griffin Dyeworks. You’ll meet a lot of really nice, as well as fantastically talented, people. Most are very willing to welcome you in, teach you how to sew garb and do as much fiber art as you want to learn. Oh yeah, if you really want to wear hot armor and clonk your fellow man or woman with a rattan sword (see below), you can learn that, too. Find an SCA group in your area by going to the SCA website.

Our Location

2007-01-03T14:49:00.000-08:00

We are not zoned to sell from our home in Monrovia, a small foothill town near Pasadena, so don’t try to visit our store. We don’t have one, though it would be great if we at least had a working studio and store – any million-aire investors out there? GDW ships from a mailbox where the nice people will be happy to see you but won’t tell you where we live.

If you plan to visit Southern California, contract us by email about a time when we can meet and talk about dyecraft. We can, however, hold dye and crafts workshops in our backyard. If interested in a workshop at our site or yours, contact us. Summer in Southern California makes us appreciate our big 50-year-old avocado tree in the back yard. Most GDW activities take place under that tree, sometimes with a mister spraying a delicate wetness on hot faces and arms.

Mayan Weaving and Dyeing Trip to Mexico!

2007-01-02T13:59:00.000-08:00

I’ve not suddenly become independently wealthy (darn!) to afford this Mayan Highland Backstrap Weaving and Dyeing Tour, Chiapas, Mexico. A fellow fiber artist wants to go but husband would be bored out of his skull. So he’d rather pay my way (yay!) to be her companion.

‘Our group’ currently consists of: Ruth Schooley (she taught sock knitting at our last Dye & Retreat), Margarete Mehrabian who owns the new Stick and Stone fiber store in Van Nuys, CA, and me. I am soooo excited about this trip but we need more people to join us.

This is a genuine hands-on experience, not just a stroll around quaint villages looking at the friendly natives. Tell all your fiber groups, and any fiber individuals you know. For non-fibery folk, Chiapas has genuine insect-filled amber, and the ruins of Toniná (300–800 AD) are nearby. If you teach any fiber art at all, you can take the trip off as a tax deduction! For full information, go to: Traditions Mexico, find ‘Fiber Arts’ in the left sidebar then click on NEW! Highland Maya Backstrack Weaving and Dyeing Workshop.

About Griffin Dyeworks & Fiber Arts

2006-12-31T19:06:00.000-08:00

This business concept, familiarly known as GDW, started some years ago when John & Bjo Trimble sold trim and other fiber materials at historical reenactment events such as the Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc (SCA). We also sold books, T-shirts and other merchandise at science fiction and Star Trek conventions as well. However, advancing years (ahem!) slowed down both Trimbles enough so they needed help. Enter stage left the Actons, a vital young couple with an adorable little girl. They were looking for a creative outlet that would also bring in some money. So the Trimbles and the Actons formed a loose partnership and set to work making GDW into a viable business. We got the help we needed to pack and set up at events, to build new shelving in 'GDW Corporate Headquarters' (our garage) and to help hold workshops. Since we work out of our garage, we can’t tie up our budget or storage space with large spinning wheels and large looms, just yet. Next thing we knew, the Trimble adult children and a few interested bystanders started getting involved in GDW activities as well. Selling at events often means a merchant pavilion full of helpful people, which makes the event a social occasion for us and visitors to the booth.

Hello Again!

2006-12-28T15:04:00.000-08:00

Well, OK. So… here I am again... is this thing on????

It’s me giving blogging another try. Our daughter, Jenn, is a blogger: http://www.cluefairy.com and urged me to try blogging. She helped set up my first blog, and nudged me into saying something on it. But I had no real focus and found it difficult to believe that a mess of people Out There in Internetland really want to read all about Fred the Cat eating a whole chocolate cream bundt cake (she survived), or hearing about going through airport security with a 3" teddy bear in my purse.

Then I started reading creative people's blogs; how challenges were met, resources shared, research was carried out, and applications were made to the arts! There are a zillion crafts sites that offer everything from simple paper crafts to intricate philosophies to go along with amazing and stunning creations. Now those are blogs worth reading and sharing, which I’ll do as this blog develops and I find nifty blogs.

So here is the start of yet another blog on the Internet or maybe just a rambling newsletter. You’ll hear a lot about our home business, Griffin Dyeworks & Fiber Arts and about our annual Dye & Fiber Retreat which is loads of fun for even non-fibery folk; check it out. I’ll share a dye recipe or two and run some ideas past you as well. There will also be news about other fiber artists, too. So send me some news about what you are doing! There will certainly be forays into the realms of beads, buttons, and other embellishments. I have so many interests, and am such a conversation kangaroo, anything may turn out to be a topic!

Below are pictures of some silk scarves we've dyed: indigo; brazilwood, osage orange, and indigo; and several using commercial MX dyes.

August 22, 2005

2005-08-22T21:51:00.000-07:00

Spent yesterday (Sunday) at Camp Verdugo Oaks, where I worked on Retreat papers and the rest worked on walls. "The rest" being John and Lora, with Clark and Sherry Acton. Cate came too but was not feeling well most of the day. After she fixed us lunch, she retired for a long nap. The walls were going to be texturized but Ranger Terry's compressor has seen better days - possibly several decades ago. So walls were washed and painted. John and Clark cemented in an odd-shaped hole in the floor where something once stood. Neither of them knows much about cement-work, but at least they were willing to try. After work we went for a swim, but the pool was chilly so we didn't stay in long.

Ranger Terry found a nice-sized rattlesnake on the road into camp and brought to the Nature Museum. Snake buzzed furiously at us while we looked him over - Good specimen. It will be kept until the Retreat so we can show people, especially the children, what to look for. The rattler will be fed a couple of times while he's at Camp Verdugo Oaks, then Ranger Terry will take him some miles into the wilderness and let him go.

Stopped for dinner on the way home and had a run-in with a Denny's waitress who copped a real 'tude on us and we walked out. When the manager tried to apologize, Cate gave him a real talking-to about how to act when patrons are unhappy - doing something instead of giving excuses would have helped. In Real Life, Cate is herself a waitress at the local Peach Cafe. We braved coming-home-from-the-weekend traffic to Magic Mountain area where a nice El Torrito restaurant handily served up dinner, including an excellent spinach enchilada for John.

We are all still very tired today, which is dangerous because if we don't get some rest over the next couple of days we'll be very tired at the Retreat. I hope to be rested up and ready to enjoy the weekend, whatever it brings. To that end, I saw my chiropractor today to get that crick in my neck fixed up and it seems to have helped a lot. I'll know more tomorrow. We'll try to get more sleep this coming week. Which means stopping now and getting to bed. G'nite.

Long Friday

2005-08-19T22:47:00.000-07:00

Oh, Jenn - I finally found my way into my own blog. I quasi-quote Blackadder to Baldrick: Computer technology is something that happens to other people. The upcoming Dye & Fiber Retreat happening Aug 26-28 is up to 55 people which is going to be a nice party. But many of the final details fall on the Trimbles because we have more time than our younger partners. The Actons are maintaining full-time jobs (one of which involves a lot of necessary overtime), caring for a very bright and active small child and a crippled friend, and rebuilding one of the more seriously as-is houses I've ever seen. So today was very busy as John and I ran errands and shopped, mainly for the Retreat. We found a place to silk-screen our totes, so I'm happy. But I'm pooped tonight and just popped in to say so.

New Monitor!

2005-08-17T18:27:00.000-07:00

Today I went to Villa Esperanza, where Kathryn is in Group Living, for a discussion about her progress (or lack thereof) with several involved parties. There is the usual food issue - Kat seems to think there is a plot to starve her to death if she doesn't stockpile food in her room, in her back-pack, and anywhere else she can think of. There is also the usual problem with hygiene. We never came up with a lasting solution, and it seems the Villa people haven't done so, either. Sigh... So I headed home feeling somewhat depressed.

When I picked John up from work, we went over to an antique shop that takes consignments to pick up an old rocking chair we'd left there a coupla years ago. They couldn't find it, but it wasn't on their books as sold. It was, however, on their computer as sold, and someone else was paid for it. Interesting! John didn't raise a fuss; he just stood there giving them That Look. They paid us for the chair but they weren't happy about it.

So we took the money to Office Depot and bought me a flat-screen KDS monitor. I've never heard of this brand, but it's the cheapest and what we could afford. We left with a box only slightly larger than a briefcase. Wow! Back home, John dragged my old boat-anchor of a monitor out of the office and Lora installed the new one. Whoohoo! Suddenly I have lots of desk space and room to put my keyboard so it doesn't fall into my lap occasionally.

Now I can stop suffering and start writing that Great American Novel...!!!

My background photo

2005-08-15T14:14:00.000-07:00

This is a photo I took somewhere on the highway from Wyoming to Montana. I just liked the mountains in the background with a road that goes on forever. When I find out more about how to do things around here, I'll show off more of my photos. Kathryn, our mentally challenged adult daughter, was gifted with a Sony Mavika digital camera (thanks, Antje!). Kat delightedly took over 200 photos on this same trip. Hooray for digital cameras, because developing film would have been prohibitive.

Oh, and another thing...

2005-08-15T14:09:00.000-07:00

Jenn is walking me through all this, so things will be sort of scatty until I learn a bit more about what I'm doing. At the moment, it's sorta like those games at Hallowe'en when you are blind-folded and handed a bowl full of "guts" that are really spaghetti. I don't know what's going on!

My very first blog!

2005-08-15T13:58:00.000-07:00

Today is my birthday, so it's a good time for something new. My daughter, Jenn, who does lots of blogging has been on my case for some time to get off my fat apathy and get started on this new kind of communication. Seems a bit strange to put words out to a mess of strangers (however adorable you may be) but... times change and so will I. Since Jenn came out from Boston with her husband, Chris, to celebrate several August birthdays, it was the perfect time to have her set me up for blogging. Of course she'll get on a plane and leave me with a brand-new (to me) technology that I don't even pretend to understand.

I don't promise to blog every day because Real Life has a tendency to sneak up on me, but I'll certainly do it whenever I can. Once my little personal website was put up a coupla years ago, I promptly forgot to keep adding to it. So I do promise not to wait so long to update things. I'll try to drop in some comments, opinions, ideas and perhaps share a few things that I like (or don't like) with you. I like input but don't enjoy flames or arguing with people I don't even know. So be aware that my favorite button on the keyboard is the "delete" button.