This class will provide a comprehensive understanding of resist as a vital element of surface design. Students will learn the proper methods for manipulating colour and fabric, the advantages each resist has, and what effects may be achieved.

Students will work with fibre-reactive dyes, fabric paints, discharge agents, and water-based paste resists (including flour paste, potato starch, corn dextrin, and devoré). Students will also study a variety of pre-made resists such as wax emulsion, Presist, Sabra-silk, gutta, glue gels, and puff pigments (used to greate puckered effects).

Time will also be spent on crackling effects and the creative potential of such techniques as stenciling, direct hand-painting, block printing, silk screening, and tjanting. Finally students will study a range of bound-resist techniques including pole wrapping, clamped resist, and stitch resist.

Natalie Grambow has an extensive background in design, teaching, and textile arts. An accredited Interior Designer, she spent many years in Ottawa working within the architectural design field and teaching Design Theory. Natalie’s first deep exploration of textiles began during her Visual Arts/Photography studies at the University of Ottawa when she experimented with non-silver techniques of transferring photographic imagery onto cloth. She subsequently studied at the École d’Impression Textile à Montréal and later travelled to Asia and Latin America where she spent six months learning to weave with local Mayan weavers in Guatemala. Shortly after completing the Textile Arts program at Capilano College in 2001, she was awarded the BC Craft Association’s Award of Excellence. 

Natalie has exhibited her textile art installations in the Lower Mainland, Vancouver, Vancouver Island, and the Sunshine Coast. She  has also developed a line of naturally dyed and printed fabrics and has been commissioned by such clients as the city of North Vancouver. Currently living in Roberts Creek, BC, she continues her art practice and studies from her studio.