Description

This one day workshop is an ideal addition to our long Natural Dyeing Course 2025 for anyone interested in dyeing plant based fibres. It will also be useful for anyone confident with natural dyes on wool or protein fibres who wants to successfully dye plant based fibres or for keen beginners who are mostly interested in dyeing plant based fibres.
During the day we will:

• discuss different plant based fibres including how to prepare and scour them for mordanting and dyeing and why they may resist dye uptake.
• consider why plant based fibres require a more complex mordanting process than protein fibres (e.g wool and silk). use a range of locally gathered and grown, fresh and dried plants as sources of tannin and consider their advantages / disadvantages as part of the mordanting process.
• complete the mordanting process of a range of plant based fibre samples and 2 larger pieces of linen (tea towel size) that can subsequently be dyed either at home or during our 8 day Natural Dyeing Course.

We will spend the day outdoors (weather permitting) gathering local sources of tannin and heating them on a wood fire, at a beautiful location very near the River Thames. We also have a warmer indoor workshop space and covered but well ventilated dyeing area in case of inclement weather. We will supply a kettle or urn of hot water, some nibbles and all the necessaries for making tea, coffee and hot drinks but please bring your own packed lunch.

Participants will be limited to 10.

The cost for the day is £100 (we are able to offer one concessionary significantly reduced price place for each workshop, (please Contact Us  about this)