Charllotte Kwon’s passionate study of natural dyeing techniques has led her to visit and work with traditional artisan cultures around the world. In this new expanded version of her very popular workshop, she and her daughter Sophena will teach a full study of natural dyes and then take this knowledge even further with direct application techniques such as thickening, printing, and painting.

In this six-day workshop students will be introduced to natural dyes and the cultures that use them. The class will gain an in-depth understanding of mordants and tannins and work with some of the most famous colourants in the world: from madder reds to cochineal and lac insect dyes to the intense browns, yellows, and golds obtained from petals, barks, leaves, and roots. A complete day is given over to indigo, perhaps the most magical and singular dyestuff. Students work with a variety of vats and explore the potential of shaped-resist techniques.

As with Charllotte’s other class, the goal is accomplished dyeing at a professional level. The workshop will move through the creation of more than 80 colour samples on a variety of fibres using both cloth and yarns. The direct application component gives students the opportunity to experiment with the interplay of dyes, mordants, and tannins in a way that is not possible with straight immersion dyeing.

This is a practical workshop which requires lifting dyepots. As we like to put it: if you can get your suitcase on an international flight—you should be fine.

Charllotte Kwon is the owner of Maiwa Handprints Ltd. and the director of the Maiwa Foundation. Through Maiwa, Charllotte also runs a textile archive and research library located on Granville Island. Under her direction Maiwa has produced four documentary films and a number of print publications. She also guides Maiwa’s substantial web presence.

Charllotte travels extensively each year to research handcraft and to supplement her natural-dye research. Always looking to extend natural dye use, she also teaches dyeing workshops with artisans around the world and has planned a series of natural dye master classes to bring exceptional practising artisans together.

Sophena Kwon has grown up with Maiwa as the family business. In 2009 she studied with Michel Garcia in France; in 2010 and 2011 she assisted with natural dye workshops in Peru and India. In 2013 Sophena assisted in natural dye troubleshooting at the Living Blue Cooperative in Bangladesh. Since 2012 she has been co-teaching with Charllotte Kwon and has helped deliver workshops at the Canandaigua, the Penland School of Craft, and Shakerag. In 2015, in an effort to bring artisan dyeing to a new audience she founded the very successful Indigo Social.