About this Event
Join us, whether you're a novice or an experienced natural dyer. Learn to bundle dye silk fibre with flowers, leaves, roots and berries harvested from the Colour Me Local Dye Garden! In this course, participants will apply flowers, leaves, and roots grown by SMAS at the Colour Me Local Dye Garden directly onto a large 29” x 29” silk scarf to create distinct colourful patterns in honour of the harvest season. Exercise your creativity and watch the magic of bundle dye unfold as you create a silk item which can serve as a neck ornament, a shawl, a bandana or hair wrap, as well as a table centrepiece, or wall hanging. Treat yourself to this beautiful creative process in celebration of the harvest season, or make it for a beloved right in time for winter gift-giving. Gain knowledge and experience with natural dye techniques and take home a beautiful creation.
What to expect:
Participants will gather at Slocan Hall. After a short logistics conversation and introductions, we will meet the natural dye components (leaves, roots, berries, etc.), and compose our scarf patterns. After our creativity is unleashed on our large silk scarves, we’ll bundle them around a copper pipe fruit-rollup style, tie them tight with twine, and head over to the stove at the Alder Fieldhouse to simmer them gently, allowing the colourants in the plants to transfer onto our silk. While we wait for this alchemical process to unfold, a short presentation on the history of natural dye will take place as well as a Q&A session. Once our copper silk bundles have finished steaming, we’ll unwrap our creations and marvel at our results. If time permits, we can gently iron our fabric for maximum effect. A take-home resource will be provided if participants want to continue their creative explorations.
The workshop price includes all materials, including a beautiful 29” x 29” habotai silk scarf, woven with bombyx silk. The scarf features a hand-rolled hem that is stitched with silk thread so it will dye consistently.
Still Moon will also provide a variety of colourful seasonal berries, leaves, and roots with which to dye. Tonal ranges from light yellows, oranges, reds, purples, and blues will be available for participants to explore in their composition.
Summary:
- Where: Slocan Community Hall (3958 Renfrew St #3998, Vancouver)
- When: Saturday October 14 | 2:30 – 5:00 PM
- Price: $115 per person (materials included). Sliding-scale tickets are available.
- Limited Capacity: 12 persons only
All skill levels are welcome (Ages 12+)
What to bring:
- Please bring an apron or wear comfortable clothing you don’t mind getting dirty.
- Bring red onion skins if you’d like to use them to dye your silk.
- Bring a water bottle and snacks if you’d like.
About the Facilitator:
Ada (she/her/they/them) is a visual artist, writer, photographer and professional jack-of-all-trades. Born shortly before the tumult of the Romanian revolution in Bucharest, and currently living in the Grandview-Woodland neighbourhood, she works across media, feeling most at home somewhere between spoofed YouTube videos and serious sculptural objects. Ada holds a BFA from Emily Carr University (2020). Her practice primarily addresses questions of productivity, value, and labour, but underneath, is about living a life of joy, creativity, and connection. Outside of work at Still Moon, she’s sewing a quilt, weaving wool on a loom designed in the neolithic age, constructing several ceramic plant pots, learning to ride a motorcycle and trying her best to point to life. Ada loves people and wants all of us to live lives filled with dignity, play, and love. Her favourite sounds are wind-chimes and friends laughing. You can check out her work at adadragomir.com.
Sliding-scale tickets:
As a non-profit organization, Still Moon Arts collects fees for some of our workshops to help cover the costs associated with running our programs. With that in mind, we don’t want to exclude people due to unaffordability, so we offer a limited number of sliding-scale tickets for participants who are unable to absorb the full cost of this workshop. If this is the case for you, please contact Clea Moray ([email protected]) to request a sliding-scale ticket
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Slocan Hall, 2750 East 29th Avenue, Vancouver, Canada
CAD 0.00 to CAD 99.00