Did you know that we each have our own unique color story?
Our stories are held deep within us, hidden in the land of our people, ingredients we use in traditional family recipes, and in the landscape that surrounds us.
I believe when we have access to land we can care for and nurture, we reconnect with our humanity, our original way of being, our ancestral legacy.
Working with natural dyes has helped me begin my path to healing and reclaiming my relationship to the land and connection to my ancestors while preserving the colors of the landscape which makes up my color story.
Natural dyes are made by extracting color from bugs and plants including bark, roots, berries, flowers, leaves, moss, and seeds. You can make natural dyes with just about any material found in nature.
When experimenting with natural dyes there will be an element of surprise. The tonal range of color vary depending on the plant's exposure to the elements, fire-water-earth-air.
WHAT YOU'LL LEARN
- Why natural dyes are better for the environment
- The ancient practice of creating handcrafted dyes onto fiber
- How to choose fabrics for natural dyes
- How to make a dye bath
- How to make beautiful dye colors from materials found in nature
- How to create more colors from a single source
- Color mixing
- Dye resist technique
- How to fix colors on fabrics and achieve long-lasting colors
- How to take care of naturally dyed fabrics
YOU WILL GET ACCESS TO:
- 2 video tutorials
- 1 Wild Card dye color recipe pdf guide with step by step instructions
- 3 Live Demonstration workshops
- Access to additional tutorials
- Art kit with the workshop materials
If you want to learn more about how to create beautiful pigments from materials found in nature than join the Natural Dyes Milagros & Rituals online workshop.
Hi, I’m Michelle Glass, an artist and activist who stands alongside BIPOC communities to work together through collective actions to reclaim our ancestral histories and deepen our connections between the land and each other. My work is site, engagement, and community based and is deeply rooted in my personal history. I am a third generation Chicana with Indigenous Yaqui roots that comes from a legacy of ancestors that were land stewards. As a young child, I moved from urban, East Los Angeles to the rural, agricultural town of Moorpark, CA where everyone knew their neighbors and generations of families nurtured the land. Throughout the years, relatives shared stories with me about their lives living on a ranch or in wooden farmworker carriages as they followed the crops. This was a time when people realized that all life is interconnected and interdependent. Growing up within these two perspectives, I witnessed firsthand the contradictions between the wealth and poverty of communities and inequities around race, bureaucracy, language barriers, and culture. This experience prompted me to use art as a tool to bring disparate groups together in an effort to build equity and social justice. My methodology embraces research, arts education, community building, and community engagement.
I hold a BA in Art Education/Single Subject Teaching Credential with an emphasis in Art Studio Photography from the California State University, Los Angeles and a MFA in Public Practice from Otis College of Art & Design.
“I feel very happy because I had never learned art and now that I am 80".
I am learning new things.” - Luz Maria S.
Natural Dye Milagros & Rituals workshops
Join the Natural Dye Milagros & Rituals workshop by clicking here.