Registration Opens June 22 at 10am.

2015 Maiwa Textile Symposium

Workshop: The Wayfarer’s Wandercoat Workshop

India Flint

$795 includes 50 lab fee

September 16, 17, 18, 19, 20,  - Class Limit 14

Maiwa East: 1310 Odlum Drive, Vancouver BC

Participants will hand-stitch a beautiful hooded travel garment with pockets for poems and passports, pens and pencils, hipflasks and notebooks, some visible and some hidden from plain sight. There will be places to keep needles and threads because you never know when you might need them [that’s why those pointy things are called needles]. It will be comfortable enough to sleep in while on the road or in the air (but not behind the wheel), easily removed for scanning when boarding magic carpets, and broad enough to be spread over an unfamiliar bed for cheer if needed. 

The coat (or jacket, if you wish it to be shorter) will be built on a pre-loved garment such as a sturdy long-sleeved T-shirt, cardigan, windbreaker, or linen shirt so that the hard parts (set-in sleeves and so on) are already done. 

We shall gather windfalls and weeds, dye threads for stitching, ecoprint samples that will become pockets, and develop and stitch personal protective signs and perhaps even poetry. During our five days together, we will also create a small notebook to slip into one of the pockets so that we can sally forth into the whirled well prepared.

For those with a leaning toward adventure, an indigo dye vat will be available on the last day. We can bless the garment with a celebratory dip into the protective blue of the heavens [Japanese tradition has it that it not only strengthens cloth but keeps snakes at bay] and watch the subsequent alchemical transformation and development of the colours we have harvested from the gutters.

This class goes beyond stitching and dyeing, embracing design, drawing, storytelling and a little poetry. India joins us from Australia.

Instructor Bio

In 2008, with the publication of her first book, Eco Colour: Botanical Dyes for Beautiful Textiles, India Flint brought a radical new perspective to an ancient practice. She rethought the entire dye process. Her book forcefully and eloquently champions ecologically sustainable plant-based printing processes to give colour to cloth. When it first arrived on the scene, Eco Colour was both an eye-opener and a game-changer. India joins us from Australia.