50 Shades of Colour from Plants

By admin on August 14, 2023

Natural Dye Workshop

This workshop will be similar to the previous workshop that I used to do ’50 Shades of Colour’

I stopped working with chemical dyes a few years ago, since I developed cancer. It may or may not have been a factor but I felt it was better to switch to natural products.
Plant dyes do give wonderful colours, but it takes a bit longer to achieve good results.

50 Shades of Colour - Plant Dye Workshop — 50 Shades of Colour – Plant Dye Workshop

I generally do not use plants that I have foraged for, as I also suffer from hay fever/pollen allergies. Instead I use plant extracts that are mostly derived from tree barks or roots.

In this workshop, you will learn how to use natural dye powders and extracts, and the use of mordants in dyeing. Natural dye colours take longer to develop, so this course will run over 2 days. On Day 1 you will be given 50-60 small skeins of yarn (that have been pre-mordanted to save time.) Some of the dye vats will be ready to go, so you can add skeins into the vats and watch the colours develop. The dye process can take an hour or much longer depending on how dark you wish the colour to be.
Different dye powders can take much longer for the colour to emerge.
With some of the tree bark dyes there are several different pigments in the dye that can appear after the main colour has been extracted. Natural dyeing is often a surprise, dependent on the growing conditions, soil content and other factors in the growth of the plants. The dyed skeins can also be overdyed to change colours by dipping them into other vats – such as dipping yellow dyed yarn into the a red madder vat to create shades of orange.

While you wait for the colours to emerge, you will have an opportunity to do a bit of Shibori stitching. You will learn some Japanese Shibori or tie-dye techniques using cotton napkins or cloths. Once the Shibori cloths have been tied, they can be placed into one of the dye vats. These will be left in the vats overnight, for the dye colours to absorb into the tied cloth.
On Day 2, any remaining yarns can be dyed and Shibori cloths and yarns dyed overnight can be removed from the dye vats, rinsed and untied to discover what Shibori patterns and colours have developed.

My dye space is very small, so I can only accommodate one student at a time.

Total Cost for 2 day workshop: £350.00 GBP

The Workshop runs over 2 days:
Start Time: 10:00am
End Time: 3:30 pm
This includes a 30 minute lunch break.

I start the workshops a bit later than usual, to allow time for those who are traveling from London or elsewhere by train.

Workshop Deposit: A £50.00 Non-refundable workshop deposit is required at the time of booking.
The deposit covers some of the cost of the materials and my time to prepare for the workshop. If you are unable to attend on the day of the workshop, please CONTACT ME and we can reschedule.
The balance of the workshop fee £300.00 is due at the time of the workshop.

All materials are include: Dyes, mordants, yarns and Shibori dye cloths. Please do not bring along any additional fabrics or yarns to dye instead.

Coffee, Tea and light refreshments will be provided.
Please bring along a packed lunch.

To Book a Workshop

To book a Workshop please CONTACT me by email to arrange a time that suits your schedule. I will send you an invoice via PayPal for the Workshop booking Fee.
The balance of the workshop fee is due by the date of the Workshop. I will send a separate email to you for payment of the Workshop Fee.