Spring Blossoms & Silk Natural Dye Workshop

Join us, whether you're a novice or an experienced natural dyer. Learn to bundle dye with fresh flowers harvested from the Colour Me Local Dye Garden! In this course, participants will apply flowers grown in the garden directly onto a silk scarf to create distinct colourful patterns. Exercise your creativity and watch the magic of bundle dye unfold as you create a scarf which can serve as a neck ornament, hair wrap, or wall hanging. Treat yourself to this beautiful creative process in celebration of spring. Gain knowledge and experience with natural dye techniques and take home a beautiful creation.

We will work with flowers and plants grown in the Dye Garden to dye (14"x72"). You will dye two scarves -- for your first scarf, you will experiment with different plants to see what colours and effects each produces, and for your second scarf, you will be able to apply what you have learned to achieve a more deliberate result.

All materials are included in the workshop fee.

Participants will gather at garden. After a short logistics conversation and introductions, we will meet the flowers and compose our first scarf pattern. We’ll then bundle our scarves around a copper pipe, fruit-rollup style, tie them tight with twine, and simmer them gently, allowing the colourants in the plants to transfer onto our fabric. While we wait for this alchemical process to unfold, a short discussion about the natural dye process will take place, as well as a Q&A session. Once our copper silk bundles have finished steaming, we’ll unwrap our creations and view the results. We'll then repeat the process with a second scarf, applying what we learned about the effect of each plant in the first round of dyeing.

A take-home resource will be provided if participants want to continue their creative explorations.

The workshop price includes all materials.

Summary

• Where: Colour-Me-Local Dye Garden (west side of Renfrew Ravine Park, 3958 Renfrew Street #3998 Vancouver, BC)
• Price: $130 per person (all materials included, no tax). Sliding-scale tickets are available on request by emailing [email protected].
• Limited Capacity: 11 people only

All skill levels are welcome (Ages 14+, all ages if accompanied by an adult)

1. Please bring an apron or wear comfortable clothing you don’t mind getting dirty.
2. Bring a water bottle, sunblock and snacks if you’d like.
3. Dress for the weather: This event will take place outdoors. For your comfort, please wear weather-appropriate clothing.

Carmen is a visual artist, singer, and interdisciplinary performer. Carmen is a receipient of the Vancouver Mayor’s Arts Award and the Queen’s Jubilee Award for her art with the community. She has an Art History degree from UBC and a diploma from Emily Carr Institute. Carmen is the founder and artistic director of Still Moon Arts Society. Through Still Moon and in collaboration with many community partners, she creates the Renfrew Ravine Moon Festival, and other projects and special events shedding light on Renfrew Ravine, Still Creek, salmon in the city, and the community’s creative capacity. She leads art workshops about natural dyeing and making lanterns, giant puppets and costumes. Carmen’s visual art can be seen in the stone mosaic pathways around Renfrew Ravine, public sculptures, and giant puppets and stilt-walking characters featured at local festivals around Vancouver.

Sliding-scale tickets:

As a non-profit organization, Still Moon Arts collects fees for some of our workshops to help cover the costs associated with running our programs. However, we don’t want to exclude people due to unaffordability, so we offer a limited number of sliding-scale tickets for participants who are unable to absorb the full cost of this workshop. Please contact [email protected] to request a sliding-scale ticket.

• The Colour Me Local Dye Garden is an unpaved grass garden located in the northwest corner of Renfrew Ravine Park, and wheelchairs may require assistance.
• There is free street parking in the neighbourhood.
• Washrooms are not available on site but can be found at the Renfrew Community Centre, located a 6-minute walk away (~350 m). Renfrew Community Centre has gender-neutral washrooms available.
• There are benches available.

Still Moon’s Colour Me Local Dye Garden, located on the West Side of the Renfrew Ravine, is a community engaged initiative focused on planting, maintaining, harvesting, processing and using plants most known for their pigments. In addition to natural dye extraction, the garden supports pollinators, insects and wildlife, and is home to many Indigenous plants stewarded by our Indigenous neighbours.

About Still Moon Arts Society

Still Moon Arts Society mobilizes community and creates positive change through eco-arts and environmental stewardship programming, and produces the annual Renfrew Ravine Moon Festival. Still Moon is a registered charity whose mission is to inspire vibrant and connected communities by creating artistic experiences and nurturing a passion for nature.

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