Nettles, Treadles and Love

Bolinas lagoon

I started two workshops at the Regenerative Design Institute (RDI) last month.  RDI is a permaculture school in Bolinas, Ca.  These two workshops are part of a re-skilling series they offer – they are a two day Natural Plant Dye class, and a three day class called From Sheep to Shawl.

gathering around the firepit

the greenhouse

Rebecca Burgess of the Fibershed project  is the plant dye teacher.

Rebecca discussing Sage

She had a huge rustic copper pot she got in France as our main dye pot.  It simmered oak galls on an outdoor fire to pre-mordant our cotton cloths in tannins, which helps it take the dyes better.

tannin bath

We harvested sage, coyote brush, coffee berry, and toyon for dye.

sage, coyote brush, toyon and coffee berry

Then we put our tannin-soaked cloth into an ocean water bath as a mordant – the metals in the water interact chemically in the dye process to make it lasting.

We also made some nature prints by rolling leaves up in cloth, wrapping with rubberbands and leaving in an oak gall bath in a rusty bucket.  Rust and copper have ways of strengthening certain dye processes and intensifying color.

rusty tannin bucket

We are leaving all the dye baths to sit and get stronger for a month before our day #2 class.

If you’d like to see the full slide show of this workshop you can go to the flickr set:

 http://www.flickr.com/photos/thimblehollow/sets/72157627994652782/