Description
Essential. Practical. Generational.
Learn proper mordanting and small-batch natural dyeing like our grandmothers did — real botanical printing begins by understanding how to prepare wool so color actually stays.
Natural dyeing starts with mordanting. Without proper preparation, plant color washes out or fades to nothing within weeks. This 2.5-hour workshop teaches the crucial technique that makes every other botanical printing method work: how to chemically bond fiber so it accepts and holds plant pigments permanently.
Working at our Gauley Bridge natural dye studio, you’ll learn the alum, iron, and copper mordanting methods. You’ll mordant felted wool samples, learning why each dye requires different treatment.
Then we move to small-batch dye pots. You’ll work with regional botanicals: madder root, black walnut, goldenrod, pokeweed, and seasonal plants from the Gauley River watershed. We’ll create multiple dye baths at different strengths, demonstrating how the same plant produces different colors on different mordants. You’ll learn to read your results — understanding what the wool is telling you about mordant penetration, dye exhaustion, and color fastness.
You’ll understand water chemistry, why timing matters, how to achieve consistency, and how to troubleshoot when results aren’t what you expected. All materials included: unmordanted wool samples, mordanting chemicals, & botanicals.
This workshop builds the foundation for everything that follows in the series. Bundle dyeing and eco-printing both rely on proper mordanting — without this knowledge, those techniques produce muddy, impermanent results. Start here, learn it right from the beginning.
What You’ll Create: Mordanted felt samples (wool) and 6-8 dyed sample wool skeins showing different plant/mordant combinations.
