botanical dye workshops & events
There's a wide variety of ways to discover the color hidden in so many plants! I've designed my workshops to teach skills in various techniques that you can do at home, using plants in your environment.
Be first to hear about my workshops by joining my email list, link at the bottom of the page.
Grow and Dye Sessions
This season I’m offering workshops that combine growing dye plants and dyeing in a more playful, less structured format than my previous workshops.
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The season will be broken up into four 3-week sessions. For three consecutive Mondays, we’ll work in the garden for a few hours, break for lunch, and dye in the afternoon. These botanical dye sessions are for dyers of any level, and offer a very hands-on immersive experience. Once you have a handle on the basics, you’ll have free rein to create, and I’ll be there if you need help or have questions.
Each 3-day session is $120 and offers deep dives into one of four different botanical dye techniques:
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Shibori
June 16, 23, 30 from 8-4
Learn, practice, and apply Shibori techniques
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Plant dyes and wool
July 7, 14, 21 from 8-4
Get rich color while managing finicky fibers
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Inks and paints
August 4, 11, 18 from 8-4
Make and create with concentrated dyes and pigments
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Ecoprinting
September 8, 15, 22 from 8-4
Create crisp, colorful, and dramatic plant images on fabric
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These grow and dye sessions will be playful because YOU will decide what you want to do!
I will provide the technique for each session, which you can apply to your textile. You’ll have the use of the workspace, a good selection of supplies, mordant chemicals, stovetops, and dye plants, whether fresh or dried. The first day of each session will describe and demonstrate the technique of that session. As you dive in, I’ll be there to offer knowledge when you need it, and will likely be doing some dyeing as well. Plus, the morning time in the gardens is always playful :)
You’ll bring your own textiles or fibers – the first day of each session you will mordant everything you need for the subsequent two weeks. If you don’t have items to dye, I always have some blanks on hand that you can purchase.
Your contribution of helping to care for the dye garden partially pays for instruction and access to the tools of the studio. Max number of people per session is eight. If you’d like to come out now and then to help in the garden, I love barter – three hours in the garden is worth a session day (or can be applied to another workshop, or for botanical dyes). ​
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For details about these workshop sessions please click on the appropriate link below.
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A look back at previous workshops
Dragonfly School fundraiser
The staff from Dragonfly School dyed 54 silk scarves for a fundraiser. Half were bundle dyed, half were dyed solid colors with Marigold, Hollyhock, and Cosmos. It was a fun and fast-paced day!
Fill a Dye Flower Press
With the dye garden at its peak, folks at this workshop filled baskets of dye flowers and loaded page after page of pressed flowers. They also made a sampler of the flowers to know what they look like in an ecoprint.
Painting with Dye/Mordants
Whether a beloved garment or a thrifted find, dye/mordant can make for an easy and artsy project. Folks at this workshop learned how to make mordant paste to mix with concentrated botanical dyes, with beautiful results.
Mordant and Dye a Silk Scarf
Designed to take the mystery out of mordants, participants mordanted silk scarves, harvested flowers from the dye garden and made dye baths, and learned some tips for dyeing silk.
Painting with Flowers
Literally! For this workshop at Durango Sustainable Goods, folks learned how to make concentrated dyes from flowers, mix it with mordant paste, and paint lasting images on fabric.
Foraging and Eco-printing
Partnering with the Mancos School of the West, this workshop explored the relationship between tannin-rich plants and iron. We gathered plants from my farm, used an iron solution and dye blankets to make beautiful prints.
Needle Felting a Rainbow Sheep
Thank to Turquoise Raven Art Gallery for hosting this workshop just in time for Christmas! Folks were provided plant-dyed Navajo Churro wool roving, felting supplies, and instruction to make their own adorable rainbow sheep ornament.
