Journal

Collecting acorns at Loch Lomond

This is a video taken on a trip to the Eastern shore of Loch Lomond where I collected acorns to dye some wool to make socks. The full tutorial is in the Exploring Trees course which is also available as part of Studio Club membership.

The transcript is below and you can also set the video to show subtitles

"I live in the middle of Scotland within the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park, around about five minutes drive from the Eastern Shore of Loch Lomond.

It is a glorious place to live, there are sheltering hills that surround us and rolling green fields of sheep, and right in the middle there is this great body of water, and Loch Lomond is immense, it is fringed by these very beautiful oak woods that I think are at their best in October and November.

I have lived here about 21/22 years and this stretch is my favourite place to come if I just need to connect back into the natural world, have some peaceful time, this is where I come.

And incorporating this idea of place and connection into my creativity is really important to me. And acorns, which fall from these trees are one of my favourite things to dye wool with.

There is just something about collecting and spending that time, and then taking the acorns back to my studio and pulverising those acorns, really pulverising them, it's all part of the process - and making what is actually just a very strong tea to put the mordanted wool in.

And then letting time play its part, for time is very important when you are dyeing things. You get such a beautiful rich brown colour from the acorns - which is very colour fast as it is full of tannins - and you can make things.

These hanks here are destined to be socks and that idea of wearing something that is just part of the natural scenery and world that surrounds me.

That's what I really love."

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