After having experimented with various dyes found in Traditional Chinese Medicine over a period of several months, I finally chose a selection that I would use to make paper. For my linen, I chose a ‘primary colours’ pallette of indigo blue (quing dai 青黛), pink/red madder root (qian cao 茜草), and yellow amur cork tree (huang bai 黃柏).

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This sympathetic magical way of thinking is how I like to use my materials, to let their properties and associations create meaning. Perhaps this journey into dyeing can be viewed as a stage in a vision quest…

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Time to harvest the Chinese Indigo at Little Donkey farm.
是时候在小毛驴农园收获中国靛蓝啦

wearing Naxi peasant clothes for the harvest
收获时穿上纳西族的农装

On our return, much to our surprise, the colour of the silk had deepened and turned blue.
我们回去的时候，惊讶地发现丝质布的颜色变蓝了，而且颜色更深了。

the magic of Lady Indigo
靛蓝小姐的魔法

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Come and visit the Pavilion, where English artist Sigrid Holmwood has temporarily recreated her studio. 

艺术家西格丽德·霍姆伍德工作开放日 欢迎来到观心亭，在这个星期的周二和周四，来自伦敦的艺术家西格丽德·霍姆伍德将面向公众展示她的工作过程。

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小毛驴市民农场是在北京的一个社区式农业项目。去年，观心亭的团队在农场里面种植了一些中国板蓝根（又称植物染料蓼蓝靛（蓼蓝））。现在是收成的时候了， 加入我们，与我们一起在小毛驴市民农园收获植物的叶子、提取板蓝根里的颜色吧！我们将会从这些新鲜的植物叶子提取颜色将我们的手工造纸染成特殊的蓝色。

The team at The Pavilion has been growing some Chinese Indigo, other wise known as Dyer's Knotweed (polygonum tinctorium) at Little Donkey Farm, a community supported agriculture project in Beijing. Now it is harvest time, join us at Little Donkey Farm to harvest the leaves and extract the indigo pigment. We will also use the fresh leaves to dye paper blue.

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在中国西南部云南省大山里有一个叫乌木的村子。我已经提到过，我有幸和一位东巴萨满道士同住那里。 那位大师要去镇上参加一个会议，所以我暂时从大山里出来了，并得以给大家说说我们最近在做些什么，上传些图片。纳西是云南众多少数民族之一，而东巴人就...



在清理树皮看到我的16世纪风格的行头，何修浚决定穿上他的东巴礼服。实际上，在制作纸张的时候也应该穿这样的衣服，这样会保佑制作顺利完成。
Cleaning the bark Since I was dressed up in my 16th century kit, He Xiujun decided to put on his Dongba ritual clothes. Indeed, ideally these clothes should be worn when making paper in order to bless the proceedings.

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靛蓝小姐
S: The seeds have to be planted in spring  - that way they would be ready to be harvested when I arrive in Beijing and I can use them to make pigment.I am doing a bit more research into the traditional dye plants, and many of them also seem to have medicinal uses, which is interesting. I am always finding crossovers between the materials of painting and the materials of clothing, food, and now medicine.
S：春天。等我来北京的时候就可以收割它们了，我可以用它们制作颜料。我做了一些关于染料植物的研究，我发现它们也是可以入药的。很有趣，因为我一直有兴趣去发现绘画的原料与衣物、事物之间的交错的关联，现在我们可以扩展到药材了。

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Now that it is winter and the cold weather has arrived, I have been sewing myself a coat. I am using wool hand-dyed by members of the Tudor Group using madder roots to make a pinkish red.

寒冬如期而至，我亲手缝制了自己的外套。我要使用是的手染羊毛面料，它们是“都铎小组”的成员们用茜草根染成浅桃红的。the Tudor Group是英国的一个历史研究和演绎兴趣社群，成员们主要致力于英国都铎王朝晚期1560-1603这一英国古典黄金时期的历史的研究和情景还原……

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