Natural Blue Dyes with Indigo and Woad

A two day deep dive into natural dyeing with woad and indigo. Hosted at Ria’s home studio and dye garden in Congresbury, the course will be a holistic approach to creating blues, from leaf to pigment!

Over the two days you will learn many ways to extract the blue pigment from the green plants of woad and Japanese indigo, starting with the simple and progressing to the complex.

Day One

To begin, Ria will take you on a tour of their dye garden, explaining how woad and indigo is grown and propagated. We will then harvest woad and Japanese indigo leaves from the garden, using them in basic processing techniques to create our first blues on silk fabric.

We will then will make an organic vat using pre-extracted indigo pigment to learn the science behind vat making. A gradient of blue samples using cotton fabric will be dyed using this vat.

At the end of the day we will dye some British wool yarn using weld and madder to produce yellows and reds, which we will overdye with woad in day two.

Day Two

After establishing the basic knowledge of indigo pigment extraction, participants will proceed to making a vat with fresh woad leaves. We’ll work collaboratively to make a an organic vat with woad from the garden, and use this to dye a selection of undyed and dyed British wool yarns.

At the end of the workshop we will collate all of the samples and marvel at the blue magic we have created!

You’ll will leave with a wide selection of dyed samples consisting of British wool yarn, cotton and silk fabric, lots of notes and the knowledge and confidence to work with woad and indigo in your own textile practice. If you like, you can also take home some Japanese indigo cuttings and woad seeds to grow your own blue!

This workshop is hands on, communal and collaborative. With an intentionally small class size (maximum 6 students), there will be plenty of opportunities to learn from Ria’s vast experience and knowledge of working with natural dyes.