Natural Dyeing for Plant Fibre

Two Days, 10am – 4pm

Do you know how many beautiful colours are calling out to you from your garden, bush track or compost heaps? Natural dyeing with plant materials is an ancient art that has produced a gorgeous array of colours for thousands of years, and many of them are easily accessible at your fingertips. 

This hands-on workshop will introduce you to a range of colour possibilities from kitchen waste and native and introduced plants, tailored specifically to dyeing foraged basketry fibres. You’ll leave with all the skills you need to make beautifully-coloured fibres ready for your next weaving project.

What you’ll learn:

• How to find and prepare a range of easily accessible plant dyes

• The tools you’ll need

• The use of mordants for colour-fastness

• How to dye safely at home

This course is suitable for beginners and those with some experience. If you’ve dyed fabrics before, you’ll learn the similarities and differences with dyeing plant fibres. And if you’ve never used plant dyes, the whole world of natural dyeing will be opened up to you!

All materials for the weekend are provided. If you’ve done the two-day twined basketry course or are familiar with harvesting weaving fibres, you’re also welcome to bring along your processed fibres ready to go in our dye pots for a range of gorgeous colours.

Come along and discover the incredible colour palette of natural dyes that’ll take your weaving into a new dimension!