INTRODUCTION to USING NATURAL DYES the Garcia Method on Cellulose Fibres

COURSE INFORMATION SHEET

INTRODUCTION TO USING NATURAL DYES – The Garcia Method on Cellulose Fibres TUTOR: CLAIRE BENN 18 – 22 July 2018 £500 + materials Experience Level: the perfect introduction for those who are new to dyeing with plants on cellulose fibres. Suitable for beginners and although a level of chemistry will be discussed, it’ll be in layman’s terms!

DESCRIPTION Having studied with Michel Garcia, and undertaken a great deal of sampling and exploration using his methods, Claire now uses natural dyes to achieve plain wholecloth and cloth with imagery through the use of surface design techniques with the mordants. This workshop will be tailored for the use of natural dyes on cellulose fibres only, and will enable students to:

 Appreciate pre-treatment of the cloth to enable flexibility in mordanting, and to increase light-fastness of colours  Understand and experience the three key mordants of Ferrous, Aluminium and Titanium  Produce a range of sample charts showing what colours these mordants (and combinations thereof) produce from different plants (and guidance will be given on some key plants in terms of colour ranges)  Explore liquid and thickened mordants with various surface design techniques  Use citric acid as a mordant discharge, prior to dyeing

The workshop will also introduce indigo using the Garcia ‘1-2-3’ method; a sustainable, organic indigo vat which is environmentally friendly, easy to use and incredibly easy to maintain – a vat which can last years – if not indefinitely. With blue in the spectrum, we can travel into limitless colour possibilities. And, combined with the use of soy wax resist, we can also introduce surface design in conjunction with indigo.

Please contact Claire at [email protected] if you have any queries about the workshop. Claire Benn – Biography Claire Benn – Biography Claire has been engaged with textiles on a professional level since 2000, having rediscovered working with cloth and stitch in 1996. She currently has two streams of focus; the #rst involves working with heavy cotton or linen and earth pigments, using monoprinting and stitch to produce abstract, quiet, contemplative (and often) monochromatic pieces. These works are based on remote landscapes such as the arctic in winter, or the deserts and adobe structures of New Mexico. The second stream is Claire’s engagement with hand stitch as a meditative practice, using antique hemp or linen that has been dyed with plant pigments. She loves the feel of the cloth under her #ngertips, the texture of the stitches and the restful, calming action of needle in, needle out. Of her work, she says, “my inspirations are simple: an empty landscape, a limited palette, line, texture, the small details, a sense of depth. I want the viewer to have a meditative experience and get a sense of remoteness… and the restfulness that can come with that. Claire has been engaged with textiles on a professional level since 2000, having rediscovered working with cloth and stitch in 1996. She currently has two streams of focus; the first involves working with heavy cotton or linen and earth pigments, using monoprinting and stitch to produce abstract, quiet, contemplative (and often) monochromatic pieces. These works are based on remote landscapes such as the arctic in winter, or the deserts and adobe structures of New Mexico. The second stream is Claire’s engagement with hand stitch as a meditative practice, using antique hemp or linen that has been dyed with plant pigments. She loves the feel of the cloth under her fingertips, the texture of the stitches and the restful, calming action of needle in, needle out.

Of her work, she says, “my inspirations are simple: an empty landscape, a limited palette, line, texture, the small details, a sense of depth. I want the viewer to have a meditative experience and get a sense of remoteness… and the restfulness that can come with that.”

Materials: Items specific to the Garcia Method will be organised for students and is covered by the supplies fee. Working with Michel, Claire has revised and ‘anglicised’ his key handouts and recipes and a set will be provided for each student.

 Plant pigments, indigo pigment, chemicals and fixatives: all of the necessary ingredients for the different processes (although you’ll be doing some ‘harvesting’ around the area for some raw materials).  Tools: the studio has a good range of tools for you to use for surface design processes.  Miscellaneous items: a whole range of ‘stuff’ (urns for the dyeing process, measuring beakers etc.) and equipment will be organised and set up in the studio.

As getting experience at mixing the base acetates, liquid mordants, gum paste (for thickened mordants) and citric acid discharge paste is an important part of the learning process, students will (in the main) be mixing their own supplies, under Claire’s guidance.

STUDENT REQUIREMENTS - WHAT TO BRING This is a sampling workshop! You’ll produce up to 8 gradation and exchange samples which will enable you to see what up to 8 plant colourants/types give you using the three key mordants. Having generated these, you’ll then use this knowledge combined with surface design techniques to produce more considered samples of a larger size, and use the indigo vat. Please follow the guidelines below and for the ‘considered’ samples, please do not plan to work larger – working smaller allows you to explore a greater variety of processes and combinations.

Your Cloth – cellulose fibre only please! Whilst it is also possible to use natural dyes on protein fibres such as silk and wool, this workshop is focused on using them on cellulose fibres such as cotton, linen, bamboo, rayon or hemp. As such, please only bring good quality cloth made from cellulose fibres as the workshop WILL NOT cover natural dyeing on protein fibres.

Even if your cloth is PFD (Prepared for Dyeing), please scour it. Experience shows that even better results are obtained if you scour. To scour:

 Dissolve 150ml of soda ash (sodium carbonate) in 1 litre of warm water and put in the drum of the washing machine.  Add a squirt of hand wash liquid or washing detergent.  Load the fabric into washing machine (do not over-pack or over-fill – about 5 metres at a time, no more).  Set the machine for a complete ‘cotton’ cycle, at 60C – a ‘hot wash’ cycle.  Once this scouring cycle has finished, run the machine for a second time on a cotton cycle, set to either 40 or 60C. This second wash is important to ensure all traces of soda ash are removed from the cloth. So, how much will you need…

Initial sampling fabric: I would like to pre-treat your sampling cloth before the workshop (you will learn about pre-treatment during the workshop and have the opportunity to pre- treat the rest of your fabric). As such, a list of available cloth is shown below and I will cut to the correct sampling lengths and pre-treat on your behalf. If the selvedge width of the cloth you choose is 150cm, you’ll need 2.5 metres – if it’s less than that you’ll need 3 metres. When choosing your cloth, try to pick a type of cloth you feel you’re likely to use on a regular basis.

Cotton sateen (280cm selvedge width) Kona cotton (110cm selvedge width) Bleached pre-scoured linen (150cm selvedge width) Unbleached pre-scoured linen (150cm selvedge width) 7.5oz cotton canvas (203cm selvedge width)

If you feel strongly about supplying your own sampling chart cloth, then please leave sufficient at the studio or at Claire’s home NO LATER than Friday 6th July 2018.

‘Considered’ work on days three, four and five: bring enough scoured fabric to get you twelve pieces measuring no more than 50x50cm, or the equivalent. Again, working to a limited size will enable you to explore a greater number of combinations/approaches, and we need to consider the capacity of the vats at any one time. I would recommend that you don’t pre-cut as you’ll then be able to experiment with different formats as you proceed. You should need approximately 3 to 5 metres, depending on the selvedge width of your chosen fabric.

General Supplies  Two dropcloths: please bring dropcloths that are sturdy: drill cotton or denim in a neutral colour are best as they are sturdy enough to flip over and use both sides before washing is needed. Old sheets are too thin and avoid heavy-weight muslin or canvas as it tends to hold wrinkles. Your dropcloths need to measure 2.25 x 1.5m, once scoured and shrunk.  Thermofax screens: thermofax use will not be the focus of the class but it can be worth bringing a small selection of thermofaxes if you have some – up to five.  One roll of 2” masking tape and two rolls of 1” masking tape.  Rubber gloves (suggest 2 pairs), or a box of disposable gloves.  1 x box of ball-headed or T pins.  1 x black Sharpie.  Notebook; a good set of handouts will be provided, but it can be useful to record your order of process on individual pieces, or make notes during general discussions.  Pen and pencil.  Cloth apron (or wear the equivalent of gardening/decorating clothes).  Comfortable, rubber-soled shoes (you’ll be standing a great deal and the floor is concrete).  A camera as it’s useful to record work-in-progress or demonstrations.  an ipod and headphones if you like to work to music.

Claire Benn – Biography Claire Benn – Biography Claire has been engaged with textiles on a professional level since 2000, having rediscovered working with cloth and stitch in 1996. She currently has two streams of focus; the #rst involves working with heavy cotton or linen and earth pigments, using monoprinting and stitch to produce abstract, quiet, contemplative (and often) monochromatic pieces. These works are based on remote landscapes such as the arctic in winter, or the deserts and adobe structures of New Mexico. The second stream is Claire’s engagement with hand stitch as a meditative practice, using antique hemp or linen that has been dyed with plant pigments. She loves the feel of the cloth under her #ngertips, the texture of the stitches and the restful, calming action of needle in, needle out. Of her work, she says, “my inspirations are simple: an empty landscape, a limited palette, line, texture, the small details, a sense of depth. I want the viewer to have a meditative experience and get a sense of remoteness… and the restfulness that can come with that. Claire has been engaged with textiles on a professional level since 2000, having rediscovered working with cloth and stitch in 1996. She currently has two streams of focus; the first involves working with heavy cotton or linen and earth pigments, using monoprinting and stitch to produce abstract, quiet, contemplative (and often) monochromatic pieces. These works are based on remote landscapes such as the arctic in winter, or the deserts and adobe structures of New Mexico. The second stream is Claire’s engagement with hand stitch as a meditative practice, using antique hemp or linen that has been dyed with plant pigments. She loves the feel of the cloth under her fingertips, the texture of the stitches and the restful, calming action of needle in, needle out.