OUR FAIR LADIES Polly's Blue Heaven

     Have you seen Polly Lyster, the landmark Dyeworks artist in Gloucestershire?   In the current copy of the BBC Homes and Antiques Mag., there are six pages about her gradual climb to fame, her widening circle of buyers and admirers as well as lots of interesting details about how she copes with the various loads of work.  So if you thought of dyeing as just dipping an old bit of cotton into a mix of dye and water and stirring it well, then you might be interested to know more about the many stages of Polly's beautiful tones and tints and why she is the chosen artist/designer for many top decorators.   I have known Polly for over 20 years and first met when we were starting our various trades - I was selling old fabrics collected in France and she was just beginning her indigo-dying business and she showed me some of her work when we met at the Shepton Mallet Antiques Fair.   Since then Polly has learnt and prospered, she now has over a hundred subtle shades to offer decorators, she is now an expert on all the processes that go into dying different fabrics, cotton, hemp, linen, silk, and can also produce many special effects such as dye-resist patterns of dots and spots,  tie-dyed patterns shibori, which are a Japanese speciality, shaded pieces for fashion clothing, as well as sturdy upholstery fabrics for upholstery and curtains, in subtle colours for any decorating commission, mostly using natural vegetable dyes.  See her and meet her and look at her work at our Fair here in Bradford on Avon on June 15th, Sunday, 9am -- 3pm.

   I am delighted to hear she is thinking of hand block printing.  We both share a love of the wonderful early 17th and 18th  designs  produced in the East, many on the Coromandel Coast of India, later adapted and copied by the printers in France, which have now become so rare and difficult to find in any quantity, and with her expert knowledge of both fabrics and dyes, I think she has a winner.  She will be at our Rag Market on Sunday, June 15th at Bradford on Avon, with examples and remnants of her varied works.