Description
Level 3: Natural Dyeing from Your Garden & Kitchen — Fall Session
Date: September 12th 2026 , 9:am – 11: am | Duration: 2 hours | Location: Blue Thistle Fibers Mill & Natural Dye Studio, 314 Main Street, Gauley Bridge, WV
September is the richest dye month in the Gauley River watershed. The fall dye garden is at full production — goldenrod at its most concentrated, marigold and amaranth still blooming, black walnut hulls blackening on the ground — and this is exactly when traditional Appalachian and Scots-Irish practitioners did their most important dyeing work of the year.
In this 2-hour Level 3 workshop you’ll explore growing and foraging natural dye materials from the garden and the surrounding Gauley Bridge landscape, with close attention to the distinction between fugitive colors (beautiful but fleeting) and the lightfast, colorfast dyes that carried color through generations of use. You’ll trace the historical dye plants of Europe — weld, woad, madder, dyer’s broom — and follow how that knowledge arrived in the mountains of Appalachia, where it met an entirely new landscape of color.
What You’ll Learn
- Which fall garden and forage plants yield strong, lightfast color — and which fade quickly
- How to grow, harvest, and prepare regional dye plants at peak seasonal potency
- The historical dye plants of Europe and how they traveled into the Appalachian landscape
- The critical difference between fugitive colors and the lightfast dyes used historically
- Documentation: plant source, harvest date, mordant, and color result for repeatable practice
Seasonal Plants
This session works with fall garden and forage materials, including goldenrod, marigold, African marigold (Tagetes), amaranth, black walnut hulls, and dried dock — sourced from the Blue Thistle dye garden and the surrounding Gauley Bridge landscape.
- A virtual option is available viz Zoom – A Home workshop kit is available (separate purchase), or you can forage for similar plants in your own backyard.
About the Instructor
Sara Loftus, Ph.D. is a natural dye practitioner, fiber artist, and co-founder of Blue Thistle Fibers. Her practice traces the Scots-Irish textile traditions carried through her family from the North Country of New York into West Virginia. She holds a Ph.D. in cultural geography and brings an ethnographer’s attention to place-based traditional knowledge.
About This Series
The Botanical Printing Path is a year-long, 12-session natural dye series at Blue Thistle Fibers running June 2026 through May 2027. Sessions are capped at 15 participants. Level 3 is offered three times a year — in September, February, and May — with each session drawing on the specific botanical materials available during that season. Prior completion of Level 1 or Level 2 is welcome but not required.
