Registration is Open!
In September 2004 Maiwa launched its Maiwa School of Textiles. The school has become a place where knowledge is shared, techniques perfected and students, makers, educators and cultures meet.
THE NATURAL DYE WORKSHOP
Learn to successfully mordant cellulose and protein fibres. Work with cloth and yarns to achieve vibrant clear colours using classic natural dyes.
In this workshop students will make over 18 separate dye-baths on a variety of fibre types (including wool, cotton, linen, and hemp/cotton). The results will be shifted with iron and indigo for a complex palette. Exhaust baths will used and these also will be shifted with a modified indigo vat. Students will receive an introduction to shaped resist and indigo dyeing. Throughout the course students will receive professional instruction from Maiwa founder Charllotte Kwon and her daughter Sophena Kwon.
45 evocative instructional videos.
Work with 11 natural dyes including indigo.
Build dyepots from 18 recipes, shift with iron and overdye with indigo.
Complete the course with close to 100 different colours ... and a whole new appreciation for the magic of natural dyes.
What do I need for this workshop?
Download the SUPPLY LIST as a PDF for the NATURAL DYE WORKSHOP
Gather your own materials or get all your dyes, additives, mordants, scours, fabrics and yarns in a kit. Priced at a discount and only available to enrolled students. The easy way to prepare for this workshop. Option to purchase is sent with your registration.
What is the cancellation policy?
Please see our terms of use for our cancellation policy.
Meet your instructors:
Charllotte and Sophena Kwon. Together they are a dynamic teaching team with decades of natural dye experience and a long history working with artisan dyers.
CHARLLOTTE KWON
Charllotte is the owner of Maiwa Handprints Ltd. and the director of the Maiwa Foundation. Through Maiwa, Charllotte also runs a textile archive and research library located on Granville Island in Vancouver, Canada. Under her direction Maiwa has produced four documentary films and a number of print publications. She also guides Maiwa’s substantial online presence.
Charllotte travels extensively each year to research handcraft, work alongside artisans and master craftspeople, and to supplement her natural dye research. Always looking to extend natural dye use, she also teaches dyeing workshops with artisans around the world and has planned a series of natural dye master classes to bring exceptional artisans together.
SOPHENA KWON
Sophena grew up with Maiwa as the family business. She has learned much from the artisans Maiwa collaborates with (including master dyers in India, Africa, Peru, and Mexico) and from experimenting alongside her mom, Charllotte.
In 2009 Sophena studied with Michel Garcia in France. She has taught natural dye workshops with Charllotte (including at the Penland School of Craft and at Shakerag Workshop U.S.A.), and developed and taught workshops for the Maiwa School of Textiles. In an effort to bring natural dyeing to a new audience, she founded the immensely successful Indigo Social in 2015. In 2016 Sophena was invited to present at the Mood Indigo Exhibition at the Seattle Art Museum. In addition to her natural dye work, Sophena is a skilled photographer and is the lead designer behind Maiwa’s clothing collections.