Stories >Life's challenges
Workshop
Dye Workshop
By: Liz Gaffney
May 2025
Many artists work alone but find great joy in coming together for collaborative events.
I met the lovely Peining Sheng a final-year PhD candidate in Design at Edinburgh College of Art. Her research focuses on the sustainability of traditional crafts in rural areas, with a comparative study between China and Scotland, specifically in Fife, Scotland, and Chongming, China.
I was a case study on the role of rural-based craft practitioners in contributing to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Through Peining’s work at the University a workshop was held with a total of three local rural artists
"Co-Crafting Through Rural Craft: A Hands-On Workshop for UoE Students and Staff."
 The stunning view from the top floor overlooking Edinburgh Castle |  Silk tissues being stretched after dyeing |  The range of colours are laid out to dry and observe the difference in colour and tone |
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 The variety of shades and tones on different materials are being discussed |  cotton and silk with different mordants absorb the colour in different ways |  A wide variety of colour samples to be viewed with the incredible background |
 before placing in the dye pots the fibres are wetted out |  great feedback from the students in the open discussions after the workshops |  It is so important to journal the results of these dye experments |
 working together to create working notes |  The example of what you see is not what you get - greens in wools and blue in cotton |  creating yellows and golds with onion |
 Such colourful and tasty cakes after a lovely lunch |
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I was delighted to be asked to create a short workshop on natural plant dyeing.
The time scale called for a long preparation to the materials to be dyed prior to the event - all the scouring and mordanting was done before hand.
The safety of dyeing in an indoor space was a big consideration with the choice of dye plants.
The choices were made to show the range of dye material that exhibited local sustainable, accessible materials.
Wallflower - Erysimum cheiri.
The hardy colourful perennial, easily grown in our gardens and wild spaces.
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The colour of our flower was red ( variety sugar rush red ) and it was chosen as an example of what you see is not what you get.
The students stripped the petals from the fresh flowers and we topped up with dried petals for an intense colour - the visual liquid was purple and under the liquid the dye material looked the same until you removed it from the liquid and it was a beautiful shade of green on silk and wool and the surprise was a lovely blue on the cotton sample
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Calendula ( marigold petals ) was used directly into the petals to demonstrate visually the idea that dye materials are best put in a net bag and not tangle in the fibre.
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Lobaria Pulmonaria was used as an example of non mordanted dye stuff but more importantly about sustainability and the impact of using plant materials from our rural settings.
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How to be environmentally aware of sustainable collecting from wind blown materials.
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Madder was our example of a root dye and a fresh example was shown and the process explained.
The historical aspect of madder was also explained.
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Onion skins as ‘garden waste dye’ gave an intense colour and a confidence in the simplicity of a dye material giving great results.Coreopsis is a widely available plant and such a pretty one in the garden creating an intense orange yellow.
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Weld as a dried home grown perennial plant gave a vivid yellow and a good base for over dyeing.
There was great discussions before and afterwards about what aspect of dyeing would interest the different students and staff.
The evaluation session where each of the groups were mixed and discussed many craft topics and issues related to craft and sustainability, was inspiring to me.
The whole event was very professionally staged and executed, thank you Peining and Edinburgh College of art for an excellent opportunity to share my love of natural dyeing.
We cannot change the world but we can change our world
