We’ve been asked to help Ufton Court design a prehistoric village for their Education department, to help them deliver the new Primary History curriculum, which focuses significantly more on prehistory than previously.
On a gloriously sunny spring day, we planted a living willow Viking longship as part of their new archaeological village. Soon there will be also an Iron Age roundhouse and a Saxon house for school groups to use too. Look out Saxons, there may be some Viking invasions!
Hot off the press!
We now have leaflets for sale which give instruction for a simple way to dye with woad. Nothing complicated, and a troubeshooting page, for when it just doesn’t go how you hoped!
Please visit our shop page to purchase.
Our second yule fair at Braziers. The community was very welcoming and the atmosphere was very festive. Our new sock colours and cards were especially popular.
A delightfully friendly craft fair in the most wonderful of settings – the galleries of the museum itself. This fair was ideal for the early christmas shopper, and had some brilliant local craftspeople displaying and selling their work. We look forward to being involved with the museum more in the future, after their redevelopment.
http://www.reading.ac.uk/merl/whatson/merl-tradcraftfair2013.aspx
A gloriously sunny day which brought in over 2500 visitors on a single day! Everyone was fascinated by the dyeing and the Iron Age loom, we were most impressed when people weren’t misled by us being dressed in Tudor costume and the loom being Iron Age. It was very interesting to see the house, especially the priest holes.
A naturally coloured hat handspun and handknitted by The Outside has been taken to the Norwegian Mountains.
Woollen hats spun and knitted by The Outside “for the most extreme conditions in the world”!
This time last year, we got a braid comission to finish off a madder-coloured tunic.
The owner returned this year to show us how it looked!
It has been used to hem his tunic and will soon be adorning his cuffs as well. We are very pleased with how it looks, how well the colours co-ordinate and he seemed very pleased to have authentically coloured clothing.
Our 10th event!
Organised by the Michelham Bowmen, this is a great little event in a beautiful location.
Despite rain and wind at various points over the weekend, we still managed to dye our new shiny spun silk and more of our new range of tapestry wools. Everyone who stopped by to watch the dyeing and discuss our colours seemed really pleased with what they saw and learnt.
http://www.michelhambowmen.co.uk/
http://sussexpast.co.uk/properties-to-discover/michelham-priory
We
have a set of quern stones, from Tewkesbury, and some grain to grind. They proved very popular at both Silchester open days, helping the Students understand how labour intensive food preparation was in the Iron Age and the Roman period. We also occasionally meet people from other cultures who remember growing us using quern stones. We’re really glad that we can help people keep in touch with their personal histories, not just the history of this country.
Between the first and second Silchester Open Days, we made a replica Iron Age warp-weighted loom. This was to demonstrate the use and context of the Iron Age loom weights found by the Reading University students at the Silchester excavation.
Our fire stand / grid made by Cobalt 
Blacksmiths has been finished for Herstmonceux, where we were demonstrating natural dyes for all three days, as well as using our loom. It keeps the fire off the ground, so we can demonstrate dyeing at sensitive historical sites.
Despite not many people being booked on ths course, it went very well with those who were there. All participants were very enthusiastic and seemed to be very satisfied with what they dyed. One person came all the way to Oxfordshire from Cornwall to learn about dyeing!