Join us for a fun, hands-on workshop where you’ll discover the magic of natural dye techniques! Imagine transforming plain fabrics into stunning works of art using local bush plants from Western Australia and simple ingredients from your pantry.
In this engaging short course, perfect for beginners, you’ll learn various methods to create unique patterns and vibrant colour variations from the same dye bath. It’s an exciting, informative, and hands-on experience in our spacious textile studio.
You will be shown how to work with accessible natural ingredients such as vinegar, tannin, rust water, homemade soy milk, and symplocos (alum containing plants) to prepare the fabrics. Explore the range of colours and effects as we combine these treatments with various organic materials, natural dye extracts, and pH modifying agents. The workshop will also focus on scouring, making your own dye bath from scratch, effective bundling and resist techniques that will prepare you for future upcycling and eco-fashion collection in an environmentally sustainable approach.
There are no prerequisites and the course runs for 6 sessions:
Week 1: Intro, Scouring, Making Dye Bath, Printing and Mordanting with Iron
Week 2: Botanical Printing on Iron Mordanted Textiles
Week 3: Homemade Soy Milk Binder for Cellulose, Dyeing with Extracts, Colour Modification
Week 4: Botanical Printing on Wool Fabrics, Mordanting with Symplocos, Dyeing with Extracts Cont.
Week 5 & 6: Dyeing and Printing on Your Own Garments
Dress requirements
You must wear enclosed shoes e.g. sneakers or leather-type shoes.
What to bring
Waterproof gloves (preferably cotton-lined)
Face mask
Two old towels
1-2 small garments made from natural fibres to dye (no thick robes)