Waterford Craft School

Class Description: Our workshop begins with identifying dye plants in the wild and to grow, and dyes from historic professionals. We will examine a range of natural fibers, and learn historical precedents for our techniques. I will show a brief set of visuals about foraging and gardening dye plants, and the quest for sustainability in the textile industry.I will show you specific principles for extracting color from plants and adhering them to textiles and provide sample skeins in dye baths for everyone. You may bring sample skeins, particularly unusual fibers, to dip for personal experimentation. Natural fibers work best; synthetic yarns resist natural color. We will all leave with dyed samples from our personal explorations.We will use a range of natural dyes, such as: Tropical colors -- orange from annatto seed, purple from logwood, fuschia from cochineal insects. Old World colors -- madder red, weld yellow, lichen purple. American dye plants: walnut, oak bark, pokeberry and goldenrod. And the plants grown at home for dye, such as Japanese indigo, bidens, orange cosmos, marigold.We may venture beyond wool into a range of fibers and natural dyes to color them. Which plants will dye alpaca, rabbit, llama, and other animal fibers? We will research to discover dyeing characteristics of dogbane, flax, okra, and others.We will also examine making lake pigment extractions, to preserve dyebaths or to make paints. Each participant will reveive a copy of my book, Gardening and Foraging Natural Dyes. Assorted seeds and plants for a dye plant garden will be available.

Class Date and Time: This one-day workshop is hosted on Saturday, May 18th, 2024 from 9:00 am – 5:00 pm. Total teachable hours are 7 hours.

Materials Fee (included in total class fee): $50, covers a copy of the book for each student, sample skeins to dye, and dye garden seeds. Garden dye plants will be available for purchase.

Items Students should bring: Clothes that can get messy or an apron and bring gloves to protect hands in hot or cold liquid. Students may bring sample skeins to dye.

Dye Plants: Will be available for purchase at the class. $8 (woad, weld, orange cosmos, Japanese indigo, & dyers coreopsis), and $10 for madder. Plants will be in quart containers. Payment made directly to instructor in cash. Plants are first come, first serve.  

Lunch: Lunch is included in the class fee. If you have any dietary restrictions, please note them when you register.

Instructor Bio: Pat Brodowski, well-known as the former Vegetable Gardener at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, has given natural dye workshops for fiber arts groups and museums in the Mid-Atlantic area for 20 years. In 2022, she researched the plant histories and dye methods of 57 dye plants to grow, forage, or purchase and published them in a manual to encourage experimentation. Her workshops include plant lore from antiquity to link today to dyers long ago.