WOW what a five-days! Here’s a picture of the “Color Bible” that prompted my quest to take this workshop with Carol Soderlund (alas, I have lobotomized her here…Sorry Carol!)

If you have ANY interest in dyeing fabric and want to be able to achieve a specific color, start saving to take this class NOW (the picture above is what two of the color sample pages look like–click on the link to Carol’s website here and see what ProChem has to offer here–ProChem will post the 2007 schedule by late Sept. in time for Oct. 1 sign-ups). I heard about this class three years ago, maybe a year after Carol started teaching it. Between moves and illnesses and scarce funds, it has taken until now to get to it and it was worth EVERY penny. I’ll blog about it a few times, but here is the first entry.

Some of you may have heard of the “Color Bible,” also described as one of the things you grab when running out of your burning house….you end up with 1053 color samples, including recipes on how to exactly reproduce those colors on any white cellulose fiber. WOW! I took the class at Pro Chem, one of the two largest dye-houses in the US (the other being Dharma in California). Since Pro Chem is in Fall River, about 6 hours from where I live in Maine, it was easy for me to reach by car. The classroom is in the ProChem facilities, and though utilitarian (in an old mill building) has LOTS of natural light, lots of space, four sinks and washer/dryer…perfect!

We began by measuring (Carol actually did the measuring for this first part, but this is what it looks like when you do it yourself–that’s Grace on the left and Carol observing on the right). The key thing to remember is (unlike many dyebooks teach you) that it is the weight of dye-powder that dyes the weight of fiber (as in, X grams of dye will color 100 grams of fiber this color, in this depth of shade / value). Water does not dye cloth…it just distributes the dye. This is a critical distinction!

We did a seven-step gradation using three different primaries (pure dyes) in three different color “families” (a total of nine dyes, three yellows, three reds, three blues). The fifteen students were divided up into three teams of five. We had six buckets (the seventh level is the one that included zero of a given color, so a pure green would have yellow and blue, but not red…it was surprising to see that some purples actually have yellow, some greens have red in them, etc….).

Here’s a shot of my bucket on the second dye-bath (after yellow, adding fuschia)

and we stirred and stirred and stirred (to get level colors..this is called a full immersion bath).

Then we rinsed, and washed, and did the second and third rounds of dye-bath gradations (a different round for each of the three primaries). Then we sorted the samples (all of which were carefully labelled of course so we could tell what was what).

Then we ironed, stacked, and labeled. Isn’t it BEAUtiful?

Then we cut, (this is Fay from southwestern Australia and Debby from North Carolina, my wonderful tablemates)

and eventually taped our one inch squares onto the blank pages awaiting the colors of our Color Bible. (Note: Carol calls it a color book….most of her students call it “The Bible!”) Here’s a picture of Carol showing us how to cut and then sort umpteen ga-gillion strips of cloth without getting them out of order (think what would happen if you had over one thousand one inch squares in subtle color gradations on the table and a breeze blew…..or cat or child flew by…)

Carol is SO amazingly organized and orderly….I *could* (probably?) do the math and figure all this out, but it is so nice not to have to! As she said, this is a “left brain” class, so that you can later go wild with the right brain. It doesn’t involve all that much math, and what you do need to do is simplified by using metric (yes, it really is easier).

I cannot tell you how MUCH I learned in just one week…..probably about 20 years’ worth of experimenting. It will be so nice to actually end up with the color I want on the first try… now, I have my cylinders to measure, my recipes and Bible of colors, and need to order my scale (I have been converted…toss out the teaspoons and measure, it is faster and more accurate)….more soon, provided blogger (now that it has finally let me upload photos) will let me post again!

What you say? No…not bedbugs! Well, these wonderful creations are thanks to Garry, from the Phillipines, who was on the housekeeping staff and in charge of our stateroom (and it turns out visited Bar Harbor and Acadia, Maine, while working for a different cruise line years ago and love it here in Maine!). Like the dining staff, he had been briefed, knew our names, the kids names…great personal touches. The first night (on which I failed to take a picture…me bad!) we returned from dinner to find that our stateroom had been readied for night…the boys’ berths set up (they are stored in the ceiling or disguised as a sofa during the day), our bed turned down, chocolates left on the bed (!!!) and a walrus made from a blanket on the bed. Every night thereafter we found new friends:

A lobster:

A scallop:

A dog:

A crab (the day Garry found my spare glasses and put the to excellent use!)–along with the lobster my favorite:

and a cobra:

The kids had LOTS to do on board, and one day even learned about making towel critters. They had activities for all age groups (including teens). When you sign aboard the ship, you each get a room key (credit card style) including the kids. The parents can sign a child into an activity center (they moved each age group from place to place to keep them from getting bored….if you wanted to, you could check your child at 8 am and not see them again until 8 pm! of course we didn’t do that, but you get the idea…). A family is issued a pager at the start, so if there is need to contact the parent (injury, tummy ache, lonely, the staff could reach the parents at a moment’s notice) they can. When you pick up your child, you not only have to have your adult’s key card scanned and match, but ALSO know the special password your child picked as a double-safety. COOL, and safe, and FUN!

Anyway, one of the activites one day was actually learning how to make a monkey out of a towel! Eli make chocolate chip cookies, they played computer games, games up on the “basketball” court on Deck 10, all sorts of cool stuff! Joshua was less impressed…he is almost but not quite 13, and in most respects (alas) a teen in outlook and attitude. However, since he wasn’t 13, he was required to be in the age 10-12 group, and felt most of the activities for him were too “kid.” Still he was good, watched movies on the TV in the stateroom, would walk the promenade deck (level 4) for me for some exercise, and really had fun on our excursions (more about which on another day!). That ‘s it for today!

There are two theatres on board the ship. The smaller of the two is similar to a smaller multi-plex type screen, the larger is like a full-sized, old-fashioned, glorious movie house named after the man himself, the Walt Disney Theatre. Here is a picture of the deco design on one of the “boxes” at the Disney theatre:

It can host either movies (we saw Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man’s Chest!), presentations (more on that in a sec) and stage shows (a la Disney…we didn’t go to any, since we’re not Disney buffs, but a whole host of passengers obviously love them).

Here is a shot of the ceiling with flash (you couldn’t really see the blue because of the way the room was lit, so it was a surprise to see it in the photo) which gives a sense of the large scale of the theatre:

and without flash

and a detail of that magnificent light fixture:

While there, Oren Aviv, formerly head of marketing and the new president of Disney Pictures (and on the cruise with his wife and young daughter), gave two talks that we attended. One was about the making of the Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and 3 movies, with the first ever anywhere sneak peeks at Pirates 3! Plus, we got to see the Flying Dutchman, the evil ship in Pirates 2, at Disney’s Island Castaway Cay (pics on that later on..probably in about 10 days after my workshop…). The second talk was about upcoming movies over the next 2 years or so, and was fascinating because we got to see how the animators do their thing, and some rough “early” graphics of what a movie might begin to look like…fascinating to see how it’s done.

Oh…by the way: population of the Magic while on a cruise: about 2000 passengers and 900+ staff! That includes kitchen, waiters, hosts, housekeeping, maintenance (and they were always working on the ship…at every port painting the exterior of the hull or washing the windows, in the later evenings, sprucing up the deck areas, you name it–meticulously maintained), guest services, entertainers, store staff, spa staff…..

Even the public restrooms were class…reminded me of an upscale, old-fashioned department store…all marble and deco style mirrors and lights:

At the forward end, near the spa and fitness area (an adults’ only part of the ship), I took a picture of the stair railings–aren’t they wonderful in their line and rhythm?

And here’s another stair well….

The spa treatments were extra, but the fitness area (use included in your cruise price) looked out from the 10th level over the bow of the ship as you sailed over the most incredibly ultramarine blue sea I’ve ever seen…many treadmills, ellipticals, exercise bikes and weight machines. I vowed before I left to try not to gain wait, so decided if I wanted dessert, I had to work out or exercise every time I wanted to splurge. I’m thrilled to report I actually succeeded! And loved sitting on the bike after a weight workout and watching the sea…..

Can you tell I loved the design of the ship???

One of the cool things about a Disney cruise is that you are assigned a dinner seating–ours was table 62 at the 5:30 seating (there was early, at either 5:30, 5:45 or 6—we had hoped for 6 but obviously didn’t get it, or late seating at 8, 8:15 or 8:30…too late for us). Dinners are served in one of three dining rooms, and you rotate from one to the next to the next, then begin the rounds again. You are assigned a head waiter and assistant waiter/server and they go with you from dining room to dining room, so you get to know them.

Our servers were Ancell, from Jamaica (far left, carrying the Brazilian flag):

and Matthew, from Sweden (the smiling one in the center, Ancell on the far right):

Ancell sailed with the Disney Magic on her maiden voyage 8 years ago, and is one of the most senior servers there. Matthew just began with Disney 3 weeks before our trip, and was on his first “solo” serving, and was wonderful! He’s a friendly, thoughtful young man with a great future ahead of him. Matthew…if you manage to surf in and read this, Hi! We hope you’re settling in and having fun (and not dying of the heat…it *will* get better!)

On our first night, they addressed us ALL (even the kids) by name (very clearly they are well briefed and prepped, learn who is whom at the tables, remember what you like to drink with dinner, the whole nine yards—fantastic service!). We just loved having them be a part of our trip. On the last night, they played “It’s small world” which actually didn’t even sound insipid (for once), the staff (which for the entire crew comes from sixty different nations…from US to Botswana and everywhere in between) did a national parade…Ancell caried the flag of Brazil.

Food was fantastic, generous, and everything was included in the trip price except for alcoholic beverages. I ate shrimp, more shrimp, salmon, scallops, more fish, lobster tails, more shrimp (sensing a theme here? Paul is allergic, and I love shrimp, so I ATE! though I did make one exception to the seafood: filet mignon with bernaise sauce! YUMMM), Joshua ate salmon at every chance. There were two appetizers, break, a main dish, and dessert for every meal. And if you (???!!!) got hungry during the day, up on deck 9 was a free beverage station (sodas and coffee and tea) plus all-day pizza, sandwiches and burgers, fruit and ice cream…all no extra charge. Disney definitely did not skimp on its food budget!

Our first dinner was in Parrot Cay, which is decorated Caribbean style (look behind Eli and friend…):

even down to the carpet, which I loved!

Our second dinner was in Animator’ Palate, which starts out as a black and white world, with 50’s diner-style chairs, black or white tablecloths, and walls that appear black and white with sketches from an animator’s sketch pad.

As dinner progresses, the colors are added so you go from this:

to this:

By the end, you have full color on all the walls, the characters change from line drawings to what you see in the movies, and even the “paintbrush” pillars that support the paint pallettes on the ceiling are lit with colored lights on the “brush” area of the pillar!

The third restaurant was the classy “Lumiere”, next to the Lobby Atrium on level three. It used highly stylized designs, with a papyrus or torchiere design in the windows

and on the backs of the chairs–although it appears I only sketched the chair, but didn’t take a photo..phooey!

(Stay tuned…that chair back inspired a new teaching-quilt and will be one of my journal quilts for this year! The inspiration was just EVERYwhere on this ship!).

Next: The Walt Disney Theatre and the public bathrooms (yep…I’m crazy…)