WORKSHOP TITLE:

NATURAL DYES: PLANTS AND PRINCIPLES (1/2 day)

WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION

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In this hands-on workshop, you will create a variety of coloured fabric samples from traditional natural dyes and local dyes using the immersion dyeing method.  We’ll explore over-dyeing and modifying our colour samples using Iron and Indigo.  I will talk about which dye plants grow in our region, how and when to harvest them for dyeing and how to prepare protein/cellulose fibres and fabrics to best accept natural dyes.  We will prepare and Indigo vat and do a couple of shibori techniques on class samples and the garment you bring from home.  The fabrics we will be working within this workshop are cotton, silk and linen.  You will go home with lots of colour samples, knowledge and the ability to dye clothes, fabric and yarn on your own using natural dyes.

 

BATIK WITH NATURAL DYES (1/2 day)

WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION

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in this hands-on workshop, we will explore various techniques for making patterns and prints on silk using hot wax, hand painting with natural dye extracts, and over-dyeing in Indigo or Iron.  There are different traditional tools in batik to transport the hot wax onto the fabric to paint and draw and we will experiment with them.  Once some layers of wax are applied to the silk, we will use Chinese ink brushes to paint on silk with natural dye extracts.  Everyone will make their own batik art piece on silk, a colour sample and a mark-marking sample.

 

 

MATERIALS FEE:  - $85.00

 

 

SUPPLY LIST FOR PARTICIPANTS:

• bring a white or light-coloured article of clothing made from natural fibres

• a notebook and pen/pencil

 

 

INSTRUCTOR BIO

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Amber Friedman is a textile artist, who lives with her family in the qathet region of BC following a lifetime of travel and creativity, beginning with her first camera at five years old.  She taught herself how to sew and dye fabric at ten years of age, using up her mother’s white sheets to do so.  Currently, Friedman is exploring direct application of indigo and foraging for local medicinal plant colours.  She using botanical dyes exclusively for all her painting and clothing.  Friedman attended the New Brunswick college of Craft and Design in Fredericton, studying textiles with Whitefeather, Harriet Taylor and Janice Wright Cheney.  During the four-year program, Friedman also participated in multiple group exhibitions, co-created emerging art boutiques and taught art-based workshops alongside recognized artists in the community.  While living on the west coast she has studied natural dyes at Maiwa, been an active member of the Malaspina Arts Society and a founding member of the Annual eCouture Wearable Art Fashion Show.  Friedman is currently part of an artist collective in Townsite called “The Wishing Well” that is an artist-run gallery and shared workshop space that also hosts events.  in her studio she is working with thickened natural dyes to silkscreen images on fabrics as part of her newest body of work about reprogramming ourselves.  Amber teaches botanical dye workshops on the Sunshine Coast and the Gulf Islands.

 

 

 

NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS: 10

                     Available Now -  5