textiles with nature
Workshops
Traditional wool skills course – spinning, dyeing and felting
Weds 9th & 30th April, 14th & 28th May • 6.30pm-8.30pm
£120 • Earlybird £110 until 25th March
Kentish Town City Farm, Camden NW5
Come along to learn about the traditions of spinning and felting. This introductory course will start by meeting the Jacobs sheep at the farm whose wool we’ll be spinning. You’ll learn how to use a drop spindle and once spun we’ll ply into yarn and then dye with plant dyes.
Finally you’ll learn how to make felt, making a felt pouch or pot, integrating some of the yarn you’ve spun and dyed.
No experience necessary.
Natural dyeing: Reds and yellows with Madder and Weld
Saturday 26th April 12.30pm-4.30pm
Calthorpe Community Garden, 258-274 Gray’s Inn Road, London, WC1X 8LH
(5 mins from Kings Cross St Pancras)
£60 (£50 early-bird until 1st April)
Very few plants produce a red dye. We’ll be using the traditional Madder to produce a range of reds and pinks. The roots of madder have been used for thousands of years in England because the plant is hardy enough to survive our winters.
We’ll dip-dye to blend with yellow from Weld and over-dye to create oranges.
Afternoon tea and cake is included and you’ll take away two silk scarves that you’ve dyed during the course.
Woad: Natural dye workshop
Sunday 9th March 12.30pm-4.30pm
Calthorpe Community Garden, 258-274 Gray’s Inn Road, London, WC1X 8LH
(5 mins from Kings Cross St Pancras)
£60 Reduced to £50
Traditionally blues in Europe came from a plant in the cabbage family: Woad. The colour is hidden and only emerges when the fabric comes out of the dye bath and breathes oxygen. Come and learn about the process and dye your own silk scarf. We’ll also use Weld, a plant that we have used for thousands of years to give a beautiful, clear yellow and then overdye with Woad to give green.
Simple lunch is included and you’ll take away two silk scarves that you’ve dyed during the course.
