natural dyes, an introduction

Every term, our CTS Co-op  offers splendid workshops related to the field of fibre arts. This summer I was able to participate in three of them.

The first one, Natural Dye Printing, took place in  early June as part of the CTS's Sustainable Design Series and offered by former member Thea Haines. During these two sessions, Thea delivered a clear  and very engaging introduction to various basic, yet rich techniques within the discipline.  For a few hours that weekend we became alchemists deeply involved in the processes, discovering the gentle nature of the materials while achieving surprising and alluring results.

We started by reviewing the very important steps of pre-treating (better known as mordanting) the fabric so that it could easily "take" the dyes (1). We followed by creating very useful colour charts with the aid of "thickened" dyes (such as pomegranate, black walnut, osage orange, madder and Brazil wood, to name a few) plus iron and allum as "colour changers" (2). The last step consisted in "steaming" these charts to "set" the colours properly (3).

3-The charts were rolled in muslin, then coiled and later placed in the steamer.

Steamer. A large rice bamboo steamer worked perfectly.

After carefully studying the charts, the final choices were made, and so the printing started by using different mark-making tools, blocks and most certainly, silk screens.

Some mark-making tools and blocks (commercial and hand-made) provided by Thea.

The following are images of one design I'm just taking out for a "test drive" for which the natural dyes worked perfectly!

The first image is a close up of the screen against the window, I've always loved how light filters through the screens. The second image is of cloth dyed with logwood and "discharged" with citric acid (!!!!). The back of the fabric shows how thorough the colour extraction was. The third image is of my favourite print resulting from these two days. The perennial considerations: editing and end use.

---::---::---::---

RESOURCES

Instructor: You may look up Thea's blog and website by clicking here and here.

Suppliers: Maiwa, of course. And from my end, while in Asheville a couple of weeks ago, I visited Earth Guild and as expected, it had pretty much everything.

Another voice: Please visit our CTS Co-op's blog, where our own Roohi Qureshi writes about the workshop while showcasing more images and a fun video of her print! A very complete resource guide is offered as well. You may check it out here.
Book: The most recommended was Wild Color by Jenny Dean.