ANZAC Project

Last year, a little inspired by the wide spread endeavour of creating poppies for installations in Australia and beyond, I wanted something a little personal for Brighton House, the home of Ipswich Spinners and Weavers. My idea was to ask for members to make their own poppy/poppies to add to a piece of camouflage netting.

The netting was so expensive I ended up creating my own, that could be dyed. I used 8 ply white cotton and made a filet crochet fabric..

I didn't want a commercial dye, nor an even look. My thought was to gather leaves, bark, lichen, etc from various groups in different areas. This should give some interesting colours.

 I told the group about the change and asked for contributions to the plant material. Johns' class was taken on a walk in the nature area of his school to find leaves. Gwens' guide unit also gathered some on their campfire night. I asked my craft group, and the historical society, if they would like to add to it.


Here you can see the fabric laid out with the accumulation laid all over. There is a lot of vegetation, but I wanted it totally covered and very mottled. With some we didn't know if it /would/ dye, so better to overdo it. We also added the nails, screws, and wire that had been found around Brighton House when it was moved to it's current site.

The fabric was rolled up and taken home by a member to boil. Mieke has the large pots and outside dyeing area.
Safety first- gloves and tongs at the ready

Photo by Mieke

Mieke took the alum soaked, plant encrusted, fabric and wrapped it in an iron soaked wool and acrylic blanket. Trussed like a chook, put into a pot to boil, then taken off the heat to be wrapped in a blanket to cool overnight.

Photo by Mieke

The next day, out of it's swaddling, ready to reveal it's colouring.

Photo by Mieke







There was some concern that the colour wasn't strong enough, but as I pointed out, the point was for it to be an earthy blend, not vibrant. The wool blend blanket is a stronger colour, and is being used elsewhere in the display room. It can be seen bottom right of photo below.
The poppies started going on, and can be added to as people make their own. There was no need to sew in the ends, as they are used to tie the poppy on, and the tails are supposed to hang behind to represent the blood that was spilt (didn't add that bit in the poster, as quite young kids will be reading it)

And here it is, in situ. I am very pleased with the results, and grateful for everyone who contributed.