Dyeing - Local Colour
Explore the dyeing potential of your garden and local surroundings in this hands-on dye workshop.
Teacher: Julia Billings
Description: We’ll begin this half-day workshop with a gentle walk in search of the dye plants growing in the surrounding landscape- you may know them already as weeds, landscape trees or indigenous species but you’ll see them differently after this walk...
We’ll then head back with our samples and spend the rest of the session using several of them to dye yarn and fabric. There will also be a chance to discuss some of the other key aspects of dyeing; fibre preparation, mordanting and tips and tricks for dyeing with plants and other natural materials.
Materials: There will be a materials fee of $15 to cover pre-mordanted yarn, fabric and other materials. Students will need to dress warmly (as the workshop will take place outside) and to bring a raincoat, walking shoes and a pen and notepad. It is unusual for clothes to be permanently stained with plant dyes but, to be safe, wear something dark or old!
Takeaway: Participants will take away samples of yarn and fabric dyed in the workshop.
Level: Beginners welcome
Workshop Length: Half day
So I wrote last week a post asking “Is my making fast fashion?”. And then I did a video on Instagram discussing similar topics in a slightly different way. And as always, you lovely humans have helped me clarify some of my thinking with your thoughtful, clever commentary.
And while I think there is so much more to discuss, here are four key possibly-more-meta ideas that have come up for me out of those conversations.
In using the quote last week that suggested that there was no single answer, and suggesting that this was freeing, I really did mean that we should sit in the grey. Not that the lack of “an” answer to this question should mean we get to ignore the question but rather that the lack of “an” answer means that we need to keep asking bigger more beautiful questions. And keep asking them.
Is my making fast fashion?
Am I living my values or merely thinking them?
And how can I make those two things a little more aligned in this moment?
These are my big beautiful questions.
Yours might be different.
And importantly this leads to point 2.