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At Barndale House School, children aged nine to 13 embraced the theme by focusing on natural dyes and their use to add colour and texture to recycled tote bags.

Finally, at Duchess High School, year 11 students considered the impact of pigments and dyeing using vegetables on different fabrics to produce a wide range of exhibits, as well as storyboards, that were ultimately to be used to contribute towards their GCSE portfolio in art.

For the main extended weekend event, the public were able to take part in 14 different activities, with new ones created specifically for this event including:

• Fun facts on natural plant dyes - A3 storyboards of 15 plants alongside an actual plant
• Fancy writing (calligraphy) using oak gall ink
• Finding fibres – the use of recovery tape and portable microscopes to look at shape and colour of fibres
• Wet felting using naturally dyed wool and felt
• Indian block printing of wood-carved flowers, with a choice of four colours to print their own wrapping paper
• Fabric fallacies – an opportunity to explore eight different natural fibre fabrics, each with a short, written description on their source and application, providing a sensory aspect to the activities
• Colouring corner – an opportunity for young and older visitors to sit down and relax while checking out the six dye plants with a range of coloured pencils or crayons
• An eco-sustainability quiz - developed based on natural versus synthetic fabrics and fibres and linked to our own published research data on fibres and laundry
• An activity that allowed visitors to weave the spring colours of Alnwick Garden using a cardboard weaving loom and naturally dyes wools, ribbon and string
• Two dedicated word searches based on keywords present on the ‘fun fact’ storyboards.

These were delivered alongside our own recycled activities which had already been developed included: painting with cabbage - the science of pH and art; making chemical structures using Molymods – promoted as like Lego® but for chemical structures; the chemistry of everyday smells – a fun olfactory game that tests your skills to identify the product by smell; and, split the light fantastic – an opportunity to make your own spectroscope and identify the colours of light.

The first day of the event also saw the North Northumberland Spinners demonstrate the art of spinning as well as providing items that had been dyed using natural dyes and wool. The following day featured the Tynedale Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers demonstrating spinning, weaving, and dyeing. The contribution of both groups provided an alternate view on how chemistry is being used to cloth us in coloured garments, using natural plant-based dyes.

A thank you to all the volunteers who all made this entire event work, and to whom much thanks are offered: Samantha Bowerbank, Lynne Dean, Naomi Dean, Rachael Dack, Jack Lightbown, Kate Nicholson, Bradley Thomas, Graeme Turnbull, and Neave White. In addition, the staff at Alnwick Garden, Craig Ellis and Clare Mitchell who made us all so welcome and assisted in providing direct input and links within the local schools and co-supported the whole event.

The teachers and students at Swansfield Park Primary School, Barndale House School and Duchess High School also deserve credit for their involvement, as do the North Northumberland Spinners and the Tynedale Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers who played their part in making the event the success it was.

One of the students from Swansfield Park Primary School said: “I enjoyed taking part in the Reduce, Reuse and Recycle project. I liked learning how to weave using recycled wool. We were luckily enough to be able to take our own weaving packs home with us, to continue our skills.

“My favourite activity at the weekends event was looking through the microscope and seeing what is on your top. It was fascinating to see the different fibres.”

Another added: “I enjoyed learning how to make a spectroscope. I made my very own spectroscope with a card and tested it. I explored how colour was extracted from the light around us. I really enjoyed the weekend event, and I was proud of the patterns that I made using the marbles and dye.”