Natural Dyeing Workshops 2024 with The Outside

After realising that there is just too much to try and squeeze into our one day long workshops, we have decided to run an extended course. We will still run our popular, introductory and advanced day workshops (and continue to pack a lot into each day) but for anyone who wants to delve deeper, consolidate knowledge and develop skills, the longer course could be for you.

Natural Dyeing Course 2024

The course is structured around the themes of a book about natural dyes that Romilly is slowly writing. If we wish to, amongst the group we can discuss the narrative themes such as environmental implications, sustainability, water, ethics and time and endeavour to consolidate our thoughts along the way. Obviously nothing will be used in the book without permission but during workshops we always value and learn from every participant.

The course will run over four weekends and take you on a journey through a rainbow of natural dyes.

Weekend 1

Day 1 (Saturday June 8th) Fibre types and preparation

You will meet our sheep, learn to assess staple length, crimp and lustre and how to select, sort and scour a fleece ready for dyeing. Each participant will then have the opportunity to select their own white or light grey fleece from our Shetland x Gotland flock and prepare this for dyeing during the rest of the course. If you would prefer to dye your own fibre samples this can also be accommodated. We will also consider commercially available combed top, wool and silk yarns, skeining and scouring. Then we’ll look at vegetable fibres and discuss how and why they are treated differently.

Day 2 (Sunday June 9th) Mordanting

This will be a complex day during which we will learn about different mordants, assistants and modifiers, and mordant a range of textiles and fibre types - to be used throughout the course, this will include each participant’s scoured fleece from Day 1. We will also discuss the pros and cons of a wide range of mordants from environmental, practical and health perspectives.

Weekend 2

Day 3 (Saturday 13th July) Reds and the importance of natural dyes

We will look at native red dyes and madder, how and where they grow and how to dye textiles with them. We will prepare dye vats to dye some of our mordanted samples and fleece from day 2 to discover an exciting range of reds that can be achieved. We will also look at how to get the most from red dyes.

Day 4 (Sunday 14th July) Yellows, oranges & the abundance of natural dyes

We will discuss the myriad of native yellow dyes available in wild places and gardens in Britain and select some of the best to dye with. We will then dye lots of our mordanted samples yellow. We will learn how to get really good yellows, some of which we can shift to a range of vibrant oranges by over dyeing them in our red dye vats from the day before. We will also learn how to use up paler yellow exhaust vats.

Weekend 3

Day 5 (Saturday 14th September) Blues and the importance of water

This will be another complicated day during which you will learn to set up and read an indigo vat. We will also set up a woad vat for comparison and learn how to extract indigo from woad. We will then dye a range of blues.

Day 6 (Sunday 15th September) Greens and environmental considerations

We will re-stock our blue vats from the day before and set up a variety of favourite strong yellow vats from day four and maybe some new ones. Using both the blue and yellow vats we will then dye many shades of green and learn how to get the shade we want. We will also look at the pros and cons of over dyeing blue on yellow or the other way round without contaminating vats.

Weekend 4

Day 7 (Saturday 12th October) Purples and wealth

There are a number of ways to get good purples. We will look at some different methods and dyes and see why purple was so connected to wealth. We will then set up an indigo vat (we should be able to leave this to you by now) logwood, brazilwood and cochineal vats, we will then make gorgeous purples, mauves and magentas.

Day 8 (Sunday 13th October) Blacks, greys and studies in brown and humility

This final day of the course will be reflective and draw upon all that we have learned together and what browns, umbers, olives and blacks can be achieved. We will then use some of these complex colours to print on textiles. We will also look at greys and iron blacks, before looking forward to brighter times and colours in the future.

The course will take place at The Outside's base, a beautiful location very close to the River Thames near Pangbourne in South Oxfordshire. We will be mostly outside and dyeing over a wood fire (weather permitting). However, there is also a warmer indoor workshop space and a covered but well ventilated dyeing area if weather conditions are more challenging! Each day we will provide an urn of hot water, some nibbles and all the necessaries for making tea, coffee and hot drinks but please bring your own packed lunch.

The total cost for the course will be £875 (which includes all the materials and dyestuffs used during the course) this can be paid in 3 instalments (we are also able to offer a concessionary place on the course, please email us about this). There are a maximum of 10 places available on the course, to express your interest or to find out more please email us on theoutsideinfo@gmail.com

The Information about our one day workshops is available here https://www.theoutside.org.uk/upcoming-events/