I was supposed to teach a class on tablesetting this weekend, but since nobody has signed up for it, I guess it's cancelled. I have been teaching natural dye classes at Gail Harker's Center for Creative Arts, and she graciously allowed me to schedule this one-day class in a subject close to my heart. My idea was that everybody would bring a plate or saucer from their own dishes and we would do as a group what I have been doing for Lynne and Becky: come up with some ideas for adapting their specific patterns to the seasons with varied linens. To this end I have been collecting linen swatches for quite a while. I've thought of them as possibilities for undercloths and as color kickstarters. Actually holding a plate next to this spectrum shows clearly what tints and tones look right with it. Most of these are actually available on-line, although there are some problems....at 56" wide they are too narrow for use on most tables without sewing, and they are linen. I prefer linen myself because it is a beautiful natural fiber and I dye with it all the time, but I know some people who would rather die (haha) than iron and that makes linen evil. (Hint: use lots of starch...put it in the rinse water and never dry completely. Damp ironing is much easier.) The variety of colors that linen comes in puts commercial tablecloths to shame. I have wasted much time on-line and in stores looking for undercloths and coordinating textiles and found them to be limited, sleazy and expensive. In my searches though, I have found some linen purveyors that have proved to be really useful to me. All of the little swatches on white cards come from fabrics-store.com. They have been sending swatches for free and that's why I have so many, but they are switching to larger pieces for which they plan to charge. That is the policy of Gray Line Linen, the source of the big swatches at the top. Gray Line is a little more expensive and their shipping is a lot more, but their quality is a little finer, I think. Fabrics-store has lighter, nicer, and heavier linen choices than the ones here, but their middle of the road line has the most colors and that is what has been fun for me. Denver Fabrics and Fabric.com are other sources for linen of all kinds, and of course, if white will do, Dharma Trading has the cheapest. There are some linen sellers in the UK that make my heart pound, but the shipping has been too high for me to ever try them.
I was hoping that other people would find it fun to play with dishes and colors like I do, but I won't find out this weekend. I'll have to think of something else.
P.S. The class has been re-scheduled in October, so we'll see what happens then.