Natural Dye Workshop in Bengal

I have just returned from an amazing week of workshops in Fulia, Bengal.  They were organised by an incredible woman called Charllotte Kwon from Maiwa Handprints in Vancouver and sponsored by the talented designer, weaver Bappa Biswas. Charllotte  had invited all the artisans she has worked with over many years to share their problems with natural dyes. Most of the artisans come from different areas of India with variable water quality (too much calcium and magnesium, or high acid content).  This affects their ability to achieve perfect results.

INDIGO VAT

MADDER ROOTS

SPUN YARN

SPINNING YARN

WEAVING ON THE HAND LOOM

As I work with Bappa he thought it was a good opportunity for me to improve my knowledge on weaving and dying….and I was very grateful. I learnt heaps and was honoured to meet such clever people from all over India.  We lived in little huts in a remote village and my room mate was a wonderfully entertaining girl with a silk hand weaving company in  Ethiopia.  Every night we told each other stories about our lives to make our hair stand on end. Charllotte and Bappa had organised everything flawlessly right down to the fab local cuisine we were served on palm leaf platters.

FULIA VILLAGE

PALM PLATTER

BACK OF PALM PLATTER

ETHIOPIAN SNACK

We met every day for water and dye tests with a miracle worker scientist botanist called Michel Garcia from France.  His words of wisdom were translated by about 3 different translators….into Bengali Hindi, Ethiopian and heaven knows how many other Indian dialects. 

Other highlights for me were a  shibori workshop with Gale Anderson-Palm on  Itajime (an old technique originating in Japan).  Gale had us on all fours folding, clamping, dyeing and tyeing….then endlessly dipping our creations  into indigo buckets.

GALE'S SHIBORI SAMPLES

She was a very special teacher encouraging all of us individually and not making us feel like fools or being too self conscious.  Her eccentricities and adventurousness just made you want to let it all hang out with gay abandon.

OUR FIRST LESSON ON HANDWOVEN COTTON AND LINEN

BAPPA'S DYER AND HIS SAMPLES

MUNNAR TIE AND DYER

Another huge treat was meeting the American Shibori weaving expert Catherine Ellis.  Her book Woven Shibori is a total inspiration and watching her work with the  weavers was so amazing.  Her experiences with weavers around the world has led her to explore new techniques of weaving, shaping and layering of color with natural dyes.  The weavers couldn’t learn enough from her, they were having such fun.  It must have been so rewarding for Catherine too.

SHIBORI WEAVING SAMPLES

INDIGO SHIBORI WEAVING AND MADDER ITAJIME

COCHINEAL SHIBORI WEAVING

INDIGO SHIBORI WEAVING

I also want to mention 2 of the artisans from Kutch who had some of their natural dyed bandini (tie and dye) and Ajrakh samples with them.  Soooooo fabulous.  Jabbar Khatri and Dr. Ismail Mohammad Khatri.  What they create in that glorious desert of Gujurat is to dye for.

JABBAR'S INDIGO BANDINI (TIE AND DYE) SCARF

DR. ISMAEL'S AJRAKH INDIGO AND MADDER SCARF

Hopefully after all the work Charllotte and her team put into organising the symposium some of the artisans have been able to solve their water and dyeing problems.