Find us at fairs, festivals and markets near you or come to one of our workshops:
2024
After realising that there is just too much to try and squeeze into our one day long workshops, we have decided to run an extended course. We will still run our popular, introductory and advanced day workshops (keep scrolling down for details of these) but for anyone who wants to delve deeper, consolidate knowledge and develop skills, the longer course could be for you.
Natural Dyeing Course 8th, 9th June; 13th,14th July; 14th,15th September and 12th,13th October 2024
The course will run over four weekends and take you on a journey through a rainbow of natural dyes.
Weekend 1
Day 1 (Saturday June 8th) Fibre types and preparation
You will meet our sheep, learn to assess staple length, crimp and lustre and how to select, sort and scour a fleece ready for dyeing. Each participant will then have the opportunity to select their own white or light grey fleece from our Shetland x Gotland flock and prepare this for dyeing during the rest of the course. If you would prefer to dye your own fibre samples this can also be accommodated. We will also consider commercially available combed top, wool and silk yarns, skeining and scouring. Then we’ll look at vegetable fibres and discuss how and why they are treated differently.
Day 2 (Sunday June 9th) Mordanting
This will be a complex day during which we will learn about different mordants, assistants and modifiers, and mordant a range of textiles and fibre types – to be used throughout the course, this will include each participant’s scoured fleece from Day 1. We will also discuss the pros and cons of a wide range of mordants from environmental, practical and health perspectives.
Weekend 2
Day 3 (Saturday 13th July) Reds and the importance of natural dyes
We will look at native red dyes and madder, how and where they grow and how to dye textiles with them. We will prepare dye vats to dye some of our mordanted samples and fleece from day 2 to discover an exciting range of reds that can be achieved. We will also look at how to get the most from red dyes.
Day 4 (Sunday 14th July) Yellows, oranges & the abundance of natural dyes
We will discuss the myriad of native yellow dyes available in wild places and gardens in Britain and select some of the best to dye with. We will then dye lots of our mordanted samples yellow. We will learn how to get really good yellows, some of which we can shift to a range of vibrant oranges by over dyeing them in our red dye vats from the day before. We will also learn how to use up paler yellow exhaust vats.
Weekend 3
Day 5 (Saturday 14th September) Blues and the importance of water
This will be another complicated day during which you will learn to set up and read an indigo vat. We will also set up a woad vat for comparison and learn how to extract indigo from woad. We will then dye a range of blues.
Day 6 (Sunday 15th September) Greens and environmental considerations
We will re-stock our blue vats from the day before and set up a variety of favourite strong yellow vats from day four and maybe some new ones. Using both the blue and yellow vats we will then dye many shades of green and learn how to get the shade we want. We will also look at the pros and cons of over dyeing blue on yellow or the other way round without contaminating vats.
Weekend 4
Day 7 (Saturday 12th October) Purples and wealth
There are a number of ways to get good purples. We will look at some different methods and dyes and see why purple was so connected to wealth. We will then set up an indigo vat (we should be able to leave this to you by now) logwood, brazilwood and cochineal vats, we will then make gorgeous purples, mauves and magentas.
Day 8 (Sunday 13th October) Blacks, greys and studies in brown and humility
This final day of the course will be reflective and draw upon all that we have learned together and what browns, umbers, olives and blacks can be achieved. We will then use some of these complex colours to print on textiles. We will also look at greys and iron blacks, before looking forward to brighter times and colours in the future.
The course is structured around the themes of a book about natural dyes that Romilly is slowly writing. If we wish to, amongst the group we can discuss the narrative themes such as environmental implications, sustainability, water, ethics and time and endeavour to consolidate our thoughts along the way. Obviously nothing will be used in the book without permission but during workshops we always value and learn from every participant.
Each day we will provide an urn of hot water, some nibbles and all the necessaries for making tea, coffee and hot drinks but please bring your own packed lunch.
The total cost for the course will be £875 (which includes all the materials and dyestuffs used during the course) this can be paid in 3 instalments (we also hope to be able to offer a concessionary place on the course, please email us about this). There are a maximum of 10 places available on the course, to express your interest, book a place on the course or to find out more please Contact Us.
A one day workshop ‘An Introduction to Natural Dyeing and Wool Processing‘ Saturday 29th June and again on Saturday 17th August 2024 10.30a.m. – 4p.m.
It will be held at The Outside’s base near Whitchurch-on-Thames, in South Oxfordshire.
During the day we will cover:
Preparation of wool fibre including scouring, rinsing, mordanting and wetting up.
Preparation of dye vats including water types, pans, containment of dyestuffs, heating, stirring and pH adjustments.
Processing of fleece including sorting, picking, carding, spinning and skeining with regard to the pros and cons of dyeing at each stage.
Looking at the range and fastness of colours feasible from natural dyes plus growing, sustainable gathering, drying, further processing and storage of natural dyes.
We will spend the day outdoors (weather permitting) in a beautiful location very near the River Thames. If it rains we will be able to move into our dyehouse (roofed but open at the side) and marquee / workshop. Dye vats will be heated over a wood fire (weather permitting) and each participant will be able to take home small samples of dyed fleece and any wool spun and dyed during the day.
Participants will be limited to 10 to ensure individual attention.
We will provide an urn of hot water, some nibbles and all the necessaries for making tea, coffee and hot drinks but please bring your own packed lunch.
The cost for the day is £100 (we are also able to offer one concessionary place)
To book your place or if you have any questions about this or potential future workshops, please Contact Us 
A one day workshop ‘Advanced Natural Dyeing‘
Sunday 30th June and again on Sunday 18th August 10.30a.m – 4p.m
It will be held at The Outside’s base near Whitchurch-on-Thames, in South Oxfordshire and is for those who have some previous experience of natural dyeing. Depending on what the group would most like to get from the day, we will cover most dyeing related elements from the above workshop (we will not be processing fleece during this workshop). However we will have much more time to focus on answering particular questions and can set up comparative experiments to show how problems can arise and how to solve them. These might include different mordanting techniques, different pH, temperatures and additives. You will be free to select dyes and additives from our stores to experiment with. We would also love you to tell us prior to the day if there is anything you would particularly like us to cover.
Participants will be limited to 8 to ensure individual attention.
We will provide an urn of hot water, some nibbles and all the necessaries for making tea, coffee and hot drinks but please bring your own packed lunch.
The cost for the day is £100 (we are also able to offer one concessionary place)
To book your place or if you have any questions about this or potential future workshops, please Contact Us
Saturday 31st August – Sunday 1st September we’re really looking forward to being craftspeople in residence again at Chiltern Open Air Museum
We are really delighted to be returning to Chiltern Open Air Museum for their new programme of traditional heritage craft demonstrations. We’ll be creating a rainbow of naturally dyed yarn and fleece and weaving a natural coloured woollen twill on our warp weighted loom.
