Blog
Another year, another shearing
It was a pleasure to take Marty and Susana O'Connell back to Serralves to demonstrate the shearing of the farm's Bordaleira de Entre-Douro-e-Minho sheep. We were presented with exceptional weather and many families joined us to watch this very important stage of the wool cycle!
Saber Fazer at the Fall Festival 2018
Among those of us who will be teaching, the Fall Festival is already known as that annual endurance test, since it practically consists of working continuously for two days teaching thousands of people about wool, spinning, weaving, felting, tapestry, basketry and much more.
Shearing at Quinta de Serralves - 2017
Another year, another brilliant shearing by Martin at Quinta de Serralves. The more I learn about wool and the more shearings I see, the more special I think this moment is that we are lucky enough to offer to the Foundation's public.
Preparing the dye plants for 2017
Spring has arrived, the sheep have started to be sheared, the caterpillars have hatched and this year's crops are already being prepared. It's crazy around here in the three months to come.
A first in felting
Here are a few images from the Felting Workshop that Ana Rita de Albuquerque gave at Serralves last October.
The colours of nature
Some of the colors dyed during the Natural Dyeing workshop using onion peels, henna, madder, fresh japanese índigo (Persicaria tinctoria) and walnut tree leaves, using different types of portuguese wool and silk as well.
Dyeing with fresh indigo
This spring, in Serralves farm we started a small dyer's garden, with the purpose of having a few live varieties to show and maybe use in the workshops and experiments. This year the garden was really small, we didn't have much time to dedicate to this part of the project, but we managed to grow a few interesting plants, like japanese indigo, woad and a few others.
Learn how to weave, dye, felt and work with Portuguese wool
The October workshops start on October 15 and will take place over three weekends, teaching how to weave, dye, felt and work wool from raw fleece to yarn, at Quinta de Serralves.
The spring workshops are over
Spring is over and so are the workshops dedicated to teaching how to grow and process textile fibers from the ground: Sheep Shearing, Silk Reeling and Flax growing and processing were taught in Serralves using the fibers grown right on the farm
The tools we have
Gathering good tools for next saturday's flax processing workshop was not easy. I wanted to find good ripples and hackles, that had been used in real flax work, not because I'm nostalgic about other times, but because you can't easily find new ones for sale and making them with the same quality would be expensive, because of the specific metal work necessary.
HOW TO PRODUCE SILK - practical workshops and demonstrations at Quinta de Serralves
On Saturday June 11, Saber Fazer brings to Serralves a day entirely dedicated to silk fibre and its small-scale production, with demonstrations, experiments and guided tours of silkworm rearing, which is taking place for the second year running at Quinta de Serralves.
Slow and steady
This year the weather was radically different from last year's during the flax season: lots of rain and lower temperatures that have been raising slow and steady.
Learning to reel cocoons with Teresa Frade
Last year I found myself with a box full of cocoons resulting from our breeding, but I had no idea how to extract the silk thread. These days, in Portugal, it's not exactly easy to find someone who can teach you how to do something so specific.
Cocooning
Half of our silkworms have entered the last instar and have started to feed on black mulberry leaves like crazy, as they should in the days before cocooning.
Growing
As we get ready for next saturday's shearing, our flax keeps growing. If all goes well, that empty area above the linhal will become a small Dyer Plant’s Garden.
Sheep shearing workshop and demonstration at Serralves - 21st of May 2016
The 2016 shearing season has already begun and there will once again be a shearing open to the public at Quinta de Serralves next Saturday, May 21, this time with something new: a practical workshop for beginners!
Flax sowing 2016
After the trouble we had finding Galego Flax seed to start our crop in Serralves last year, it felt good to have it multiplied and have this year's sowing assured without having to count seeds.
It's that time of the year again
Yes, it's true. I didn't even finish telling the story of last year's silkworm raising and silk reeling and the 2016 silkworms are here already. But that's what happens when you want to get a farm to produce, wool, flax, silk, write about that, make a study about portuguese wool, run a shop and also have a baby by the way.
![[wip] Portuguese wool - a practical guide](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/648982341579d12f2111cfb5/1687858372291-XW3CG5XCRV8I4N978MEQ/image-asset.jpeg)
[wip] Portuguese wool - a practical guide
The very tedious part of doing the sample photoshoot is the very satisfactory part of seeing your work finally come together.