About 10 this morning our workshop on natural dyeing began with our instructor, Ildoco, whose business is using plant dyes to colour silk, wool, linen, cotton, and hemp. To begin, we were sent out to gather the yellow flowers from "broom" (similar to Scotch broom in the west), leaves from a walnut tree, and branches from an olive tree. We cut the leaves up into small pieces, and let each plant soak for the day and overnight. Ildoco had brought with her some chestnut leaves that she'd soaked overnight, and some "madder", which has red liquid in its roots. We boiled the madder and the chestnut for an hour each, and proceeded through the dyeing process, after treating the white silk, wool, cotton and linen with alum to prepare them for dyeing. The resulting colours were fabulous, and they are colourfast to boot. The nice thing was that there were no chemicals involved.
After class, around 6, we went to the Donini Winery, about 15 minutes down the road, for a tour and wine-tasting. Diego, the manager, was fun and informative. He gets grapes from just a few independent growers, but produces a wide variety of good wines and liqueurs. While we were touring the facilities, a couple of fellows came in the front door with their empty gallon wine jugs, and Diego filled the jugs just as you would fill your car with gas. Our "tasting" included bread, cheese, bruschetta, etc. as well as at least 6 wines......we were quite happy when we left to go back to Maridiana!
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