An Abundance of Color: Foraged and Farmed Natural Dyes

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$315.00
$315.00
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Weekend Workshop: August 24 & 25th 2019


This workshop will immerse you in the practice of foraging for dye materials from the local fields and forests, as well as introduce you to dye gardening. We will discover and collect from the abundance of seasonal flowers, leaves, roots, mushrooms and lichen that grows around my southern Vermont studio and dye with what we bring back. ​


Email any questions to Hannah at [email protected]
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Workshop Details:

We will progress through the full natural dyeing process from mordanting fibers, making dye solutions of different concentrations, and seeing what colors emerge. Topics covered will include: ethical foraging practices, methods of preserving different dye materials to retain color potential, extraction techniques, dyeing and over-dyeing for a range of colors, and color and light fastness. I will encourage you to be curious and explore and play! 

We will augment what we find with my stash of preserved materials, so we will have lots to play with regardless of the weather and seasonal productivity. Examples of dyes we will likely explore include:
  • Summer flowers: Goldenrod, Queen Anne’s Lace, Rudbeckia
  • Tree tannins: Sumac and Black Walnut
  • Wild Madder root
  • Mushrooms: Hydnellum and Phellodon spp., Tapinella atrotomentosa, Lobster, Dyer’s Polypore
  • Lichen: Umbilicaria and/or Punctelia rudecta
  • Japanese indigo and Dyer’s Coreopsis from the garden
  • Rhubarb leaves for mordant

We will be spending several hours outside foraging and harvesting off of trails, on uneven ground in unknown weather conditions! The dye studio setup also blends between indoor and outdoor spaces with a possibility of mosquito encounters in some weather conditions. I will provide various bug repellants for everyone to use.

Food: I will provide tea, coffee and some snacks and seasonable garden nibbles. To accommodate both local and out of town participants, you are welcome to either bring your own lunch, or for $15 order lunch from a local cafe. I will send out the cafe menu to registered participants in the weeks before the workshop.

Cost includes:
  • 12 - 5 gram skeins of yarn for a sample from every dye pot 
  • All dye materials (gifts from nature!)
  • Printed instructions of natural dyeing basics in a binder where you can also organize your dye samples
  • My self published field guide to Foraged Dyes of Southern Vermont
  • Coffee/tea and snacks

Where: 
My studio and home — a 3/4 acre micro-homestead on the grounds of a c.1820 brick schoolhouse — at 284 Brookline Rd., Athens, VT 05143
See this page for information on area accommodations for anyone coming from out of town.
Allergy note: Although she will not be here during the workshop and the entire place will be cleaned, there is a dog who lives in my house.

When: 
August 24 & 25, 2019
Both days 9-5

What to Bring:
  • Writing tools
  • Clothing that can get grubby, hiking boots/shoes, long socks, long pants, long sleeve shirt, hat, rain gear
  • Snacks and lunches (or order from a local cafe)
  • Basket with a handle, if you have one
  • Folding pocket knife and/or hand pruners if you have them
  • Curiosity and enthusiasm :)
The fine print:

Workshops are open to anyone 18 years old and up. Youth under 18 are welcome to attend with a parent or guardian if both register and pay the full cost of the workshop. 

If you need to cancel, you must let me know at least a month in advance of your workshop in order to get a refund, minus your registration fee. 

If a workshop does not have enough participants registered, Sky Like Snow reserves the right to cancel. In that event, you will be given the option to transfer your registration to another workshop with space, or receive a full refund (including the registration fee) via your original payment method.