Jan 12 – Feb 16

If you love natural dyes, working with fibre and exploring colour, you’ll love this six week course with Eloise Holland!

Take control of your dye work and look more closely at the processes and chemistry behind the colours. This six-week intensive course is geared for fascinated beginners. You will finish this course feeling more confidence in your ability to safely and beautifully use natural dyes at home, with resources to continue building your skills!

On day one we will touch on best practices for a safe and efficient dye process, and look at the different materials to dye including recycled fabrics, wool, cotton and silk. We will cover tannin dyes with either Sumac or Walnuts

On day two we learn about the charm of red dyes. Madder is one of the oldest reds, and is a plant that can be grown locally. Coccineal is derived from an insect that feeds on cactus. These reds will bring us a variety of tones using modifiers and post mordants

On day three we cover the various yellows that are so abundant in the plant world. From Goldenrod to Tansy and Chamomile we look at the subtle shade variations these flavonoid dyes produce.

On day four is an introduction to Indigo which is always magical and exciting. We will touch on the basics of this vat dye, exploring resist dyeing and giving you the grounding for your own experiments.

On day five we will build on our previous work by looking at overdyeing. This is a day of experimentation.

On day six we will touch on dyeing with mushrooms and lichen. We are blessed with several locally available dye mushrooms and this is your chance to learn to coax colours from them.

-All materials will be provided, but please bring gloves and a face mask (to protect against small airborne particles). Feel free to bring a notebook, and please dress for mess. If you have some small fabrics or textiles you would like to dye, please feel free to bring them (doilies, scraps, small pieces only. No yardage!)