Sunday, June 1 & Saturday, June 2, 2024
Natural Dye Workshop
Indigenous Fashion Arts Festival ~ Toronto ONT/Canada
Natural Dye Workshop Dyeing Wool
Algonquin Eastern Woodlands Blanket
Seminole Bandolier Bag & Wool Yarn
Indigenous Teaching Artist ~ Carola Jones
NC Toisnot Skaru:re | FL Seminole | Johns Island, SC Geechee | New Orleans Treme Creole
A two-day workshop sharing indigenous natural dye knowledge on wool. The content in this workshop provides basic techniques that can be applied to dyeing wool yarns and fabrics as a source of sustainable entrepreneurship for indigenous women.
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The goal of this workshop is to provide a space for indigenous learning, teaching, sharing, and healing by reconnecting with sustainable land-based practices in a nurturing intertribal community.
Sage Paul Cardinal Teachings
Community
Decolonization
Creating With Purpose
Wearing Culture Every Day
Authenticity
Intertribal Sharing
Sustainability
Eco-Friendly
Workshop Projects
NOTE: Participants Can Join A Free Online Community Group To Complete All Projects Presented In This Workshop | Workshop Content Archived as IFAF Digital & On-Demand Learning
Workshop Fashion Project is an Algonquin Eastern Woodlands Wool Blanket Hand-Dyed in Madder (Rubia cordifolia) | Blanket Size = *WOF by 2 meters (Blanket will need to wrap around your body, so additional yardage may be needed) >> Dyed wool yarn will be created to edge the blanket with the Blanket Stitch. To embellish the blanket with tribal iconography, additional wool yarn and/or beads will need to be provided by participants. *WOF = Width Of Fabric
Eastern Woodlands Wool Blanket Hand-Dyed With Madder (Rubia cordifolia)
Image on left: "Binding Up The Blues" is a textiles "survivance" strategy practiced by indigenous Needle or Women who held onto small batch natural dyeing techniques as medicine on the Sea Islands near the port of Charleston. | Supplies Need to Bind Up The Blues >> Either artificial sinew, cotton sinew or hemp twine, an optional sinew puller for tight binding, wooden or metal clothespins, clamps, items to embed in bundle from the land (Spanish Moss represents air, seashells, sea oats, seaweed or algae from the ocean).
Images of Algonquin Wool Blankets Created In Other Workshops
All the wool is the same. The value differences are due to the land and the water. The first two images on the left were created on the ancestral and unceded territories of the Syilx people on the Okanagan at the University of British Columbia as part of the Indigenous Art Intensive. The two images on the right end were created on the ancestral homeland of the Nottoway Indian Tribe of Virginia.
Seminole Wool Bandolier Bag
*Project Requires Hand-Stitching Homework
Learn to Make a Wool Seminole Bandolier Bag. This project is a bonus, where we dye wool in indigo or black walnuts, neither of which requires a mordant. The experience of using these dyes is another tool to dye wool on your natural dye journey. Our goal in the project is to create a solid color blue or brown that we can embellish with embroidery and beads. A detailed guided demonstration of hand sewing will be provided, along with a needle. We will meet online in a dedicated space on the Google Classroom platform, and finish all workshop projects as a community. The bag can be embellished with iconography from your tribal communities. Finished examples will be explained. ***NOTE: To complete this project bring an extra meter of wool fabric.
Florida Ethnographic Collection at the Florida Museum of Natural History
Left: Bandolier bag, Seminole, wool yarn, wool, brass, glass beads, ca. 1830s-1840s, 25.0” long, 17.0” wide (E-598). Bottom: Detail of Strap from Wandering Bull Website.
Dyed Wool Yarn
Madder ~ Indigo ~ Black Walnut ~ Onion Skins
Madder ~ Indigo ~ Black Walnut ~ Onion Skins
Participants will learn how to dye wool yarn using madder and onion skins that require a mordant. We will experience dyeing wool yarn in indigo and black walnuts that do NOT require a mordant. Detailed demonstration will be shared. We will work online as a community in Google Classroom to complete all projects after the workshop.
Dyeing wool yarn can be a sustainable business model for an individual or an indigenous community. Some of the variations in values shown above happened because I used different types of wool: 1) Merino (white) | 2) Corriedale (brown) | 3) Shetland (cream) | 4) Hebridean (warm black)
Community Project: Moon Lodge Cover
Dancing With Indigo as Medicine is returning to the source of my natural dyeing knowledge on Johns Island, SC later this year. All that my mother and I know about indigo and natural dyeing we learned on Johns Island from Mat Randolph, Mary Burnett, and her mother Grand Mere. Grand Mere was born on Kiawah Island. Muslin fabric will be hand-painted using textile paints during the open community studio. The final fabric will be used to drape our tent during Stomp Dancing Indigo as Medicine at Ground Zero (Johns Island). A Moon Lodge honoring indigo workers whose humanity was denied them will once again cover "Us/We" on the "Land Under Flying Hawks".