VAC offers botanical dyes workshop

Photo courtesy of Puakea Forester
Subscribe Now Choose a package that suits your preferences.
Start Free Account Get access to 7 premium stories every month for FREE!
Already a Subscriber? Current print subscriber? Activate your complimentary Digital account.

The community is invited to join Puakea Forester from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 1 at Volcano Art Center Niaulani Campus in Volcano Village.

Attendees will start by going over best practices when approaching natural colorants by learning how to prepare cellulose and protein fibers for optimal uptake of dyes via scouring, tannin, and immersion mordanting.

They will gain solid replicable results creating thickened dyes for a colorful palette from ethically sourced tried and true extracts, grounds, and raw material. This is accomplished by documenting experiments of hue variations on the percentage of dyestuff to WOF (weight of fabric), adding PH modifiers, color mixing, color layering.

Attendees will learn how to design and carve repeat patterns for stamps, layering, freehand painting, masking, and stenciling for direct application techniques.

As a reference tool for future projects, participants will mix and build palettes on a well-recorded color wheel or grid-swatched wall hanging, and finish the pieces by permanently fixing the colors to the cloth by steaming.

The cost for this workshop is $130, or $125 for VAC members, plus a $110 supply fee.

For more information or to register, visit www.volcanoartcenter.org or call 808-967-8222.

Volcano Art Center Niaulani Campus is located at 19-4074 Old Volcano Road in Volcano Village.

The Volcano Art Center is a non-profit educational organization created in 1974 to promote, develop, and perpetuate the artistic and cultural heritage of Hawai‘i’s people and environment through activities in the visual, literary, and performing arts.