Registration for this workshop is open!
Natural dyeing has a long and rich history in communities around the world. In this workshop we will explore using colours from seasonal plants, nuts, and berries, as well as kitchen waste to dye cotton.
We will explore the processes of mordanting cloth, preparing dye materials, techniques such as bundle dyeing, and aftercare of naturally dyed fabrics. We will connect with and give gratitude to the plants that we dye with and each take home a naturally dyed cotton bandana.
This workshop welcomes folks of all levels of experience. All materials are provided.
Session price: $75 +HST. If cost is a barrier, please see our Economics for a Changing World page for sliding-scale and mutual aid options.
Meet your instructors:
Nimra Bandukwala (she/her) is a community-engaged visual artist and maker of crafts. She grew up in Karachi and currently lives on the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, and Attawandaron peoples, in Cambridge Ontario.
She comes from a lineage of women who crafted with what they had, appreciated and grew plants, and valued the lives and stories of materials. She creates paints, dyes, and sculptural pieces with plants, rocks, and shells while exploring our complex relationships with these materials. She co-leads Reth aur Reghistan, a multidisciplinary arts project that engages with folklore from Sindh through artmaking and poetry (sculpturalstorytelling.com).
You can join her creative experiments on Instagram @nimrabandukwala.art and find her at nimrabandukwala.com.
Miki Tamblyn is a poet, printmaker, wildlife biologist and student of the more-than-human world. They grew up shape-shifting and running amok in the boreal forest on traditional Anishnaabe territory in so-called ‘Thunder Bay’, and have now lived and loved along the banks of the Eramosa River for 6 years or so, on and off.
Miki loves to feel big feelings, make things with her hands and sing with others as much as possible. They especially love to care for and support smaller beings, and they’ve practiced this care as a wildlife rehabilitator, raptor trainer and primate researcher before finding the magical world of outdoor school.
Miki seeks to play, explore creature senses, and celebrate life in all its queerness, diversity, joy and abundance. They especially love all things amphibious, poetic and make-believe.