Hey there all my lovely blog followers! The keen-eyed amongst you may have noticed a subtle branding change in my header. Nothing too earth shattering, but instead of Glenda Waterworth Fine Art, you will notice my strapline now says “Fine Art & Dye Studio.”

For those who have been following my artistic journey, you probably already know that I’ve been dyeing yarn, fibre, and silk for the past six or seven years.

Thanks to my local Spinners, Weavers and Dyer’s Guild, I learned to spin yarn from fibre, a process that allows colours to be optically blended (spin red and yellow fibre together and the resulting yarn appears orange, but is actually still made up of red and yellow fibres when looked at very closely).

The obvious next step was to learn how to dye the fibre myself and that had me embarking on a whole new journey into the alchemy of mixing and blending dye colours.

I learned about different types of dye, some suited to protein based fibres (silk, wool and other animal fibres) and others that work on plant based cellulose fibres (cotton, linen, bamboo). Then there’s the whole world of eco-printing and natural dyeing, closely related to making natural inks – something I have only scratched the surface of.

The decision to bring everything under one single brand felt like a natural progression and reflects the reality of my artistic pursuits these days. I love painting, I love dyeing. I love to mix paint, I love to blend dyes. It’s a beautiful symbiotic relationship all about colour, but for some reason, I’ve always felt they had to be separate.

And suddenly, this fusion is getting me excited again. The mesmerizing dance of colours on silk or the subtle variations in shades on yarns and fibres will often prompt new ideas and possibilities for my paintings.  I love to experiment with complex, multi-layered and overdyed shibori, the Japanese art of tie-dye which often leads to beautiful abstract compositions.

I have also experimented with fluid paints, thinning them down with additives that allow the colours to float and blend in unexpected ways, sparking ideas for dye palettes and inspiring me to experiment with unconventional colourways.

Thank you for being part of my artistic evolution, and I’m looking forward to seeing what comes next!