The NEWEST Color Mixing for Dyers
5 day workshop
Dye the color you choose, not the color that chooses you! Explore the unlimited number of hues possible by mixing only pure reds, yellows, and blues of Procion MX dye. Teams of students will use different sets of primaries that when mixed will yield hundreds of colors in a wide range of values. Sharing the results, each student will build a sample book of more than 1,000 dye formulas on 100% cotton fabric. This book will become an invaluable reference for future dyeing, whether planned dyeing or freeform dyeing. Using the sample book as a guide, each student will apply the basic techniques of dyeing, including dyeing value gradations, over-dyeing, and low water immersion techniques to do further explorations as time allows.
Along with this hands-on approach, students will come to understand color theory in three-dimensional model that goes beyond the color wheel. We will examine the difference between color theory and color reality, and break through the confusions of so many color systems that are not dye-based. This course will be a wonderful foundation for wearable artists, quilters, needleworkers, weavers, and dyers of cellulose fibers and silk, or for anyone who wants to learn more about the interactions of color.
NEW in 2025! Students will be creating new color families not previously dyed in Carol’s classes. This is a FIFTH set of families, and we will be using some different yellow. red, and blue dyes as primaries than in previous classes. If you have been wanting a new set of samples, but would rather do the work cooperatively with classmates, this is your opportunity!
Let’s Mix It Up! Beyond the Primary Palette
5 day workshop: Intermediate to Advanced: some experience with mixing color using paint and/or dye recommended.
Brand new class!
Although mixing with single hue primary colors gives the largest breadth of individual hues possible, interesting secondary dyes are also available—orange, violet, purple and gray that are single hues— NOT mixes— in the Procion line.
What happens if they are used as part of a color family? How is the chromatic range affected? Each student will explore an answer to that question, dyeing a mini-family using the pure secondary colors and gray as part of color mixes, then sharing the resulting fabric with classmates. Everyone will emerge with a large color reference while learning an exciting way to generate more color ideas for their work.
Students will bring selected color palettes from home to use in challenge assignments and will manipulate and transform these palettes in various ways, via the use of overdyes and additions of new parent colors.
How is the chromatic range affected? These fabrics will then be used in studies exploring the new color luminosities, juxtapositions, and relationships. The possibilities will explode!
Dyeing To Stitch–NEW CLASS!
5 day workshop: all levels- no stitching or dyeing experience necessary
Inspired by Japanese Boro traditions, we will layer white cottons, silks, and linens—new or thrifted. Then the patched textile collage will be colored watercolor-style with dyes as a blending device, becoming the base for improvisational stitching using a variety of threads, including those we have dyed ourselves. We will explore other simple mark making techniques to add complex visual interactions including the use of opaque paints and markers. Come enjoy spontaneity with stitch and dye!
In The Thick Of It: Working With Thickened Dyes
4 or 5 day workshop
When fiber reactive dyes are thickened, they can be used in a very painterly ways. Using your personal color inspiration, students will develop a palette of color in thickened dye. We will investigate textural mark making and personal imagery through the use of artist-made tools. Each day, students create a new tool set with which to print including carved rubber and foam stamps, as well as stencils and masks (Carol will also demonstrate creating stencils with the Silhouette craft cutter and by hand). Thermofax screens and the use of Gelli plates with dye will round out the tool box. Some students may choose to use a thickened discharge agent to remove color with some of the same tools. (Discharging will be done outdoors rather than in the classroom.) Evocative effects can be achieved as the techniques are layered together. Safety and good studio practices will be emphasized. Some experience with Procion MX dyes is a plus.
Layers Upon Layers
5 day workshop: Intermediate and up. Some experience with Procion MX dye recommended
Distressed surfaces are endlessly fascinating to artists. Weathered doorways, crumbling walls, eroding hillsides, peeling paint, and rusted metal grab our attention as they partially reveal and partially conceal. These surfaces speak of time and of process. They open the door to our inner thoughts and invite us in…..
In this class we will develop experimental approaches to the layering of color and visual texture on cloth. Students will choose to develop either
- 20-30 smaller (fat quarter sized) pieces displaying a range of techniques, but visually related in color themes
- 4-6 larger pieces (1 or 2 yards each) that focus on one or two aspects of the processes presented and use related imagery
We will use natural fibers, primarily cotton and silk, both opaque and sheer. We will build layers on the cloth, considering the effects of
- layering translucent dye and opaque paint
- layering value and hue
- layering textures in low water immersion
- layering textures created by resists
- layering stitch and patch
To develop the vision, we will brush and screen, mask, spray, and monoprint onto white pfd OR onto previously dyed, patched, and stitched cloth, using any or all of the following:
- Procion MX fiber reactive dyes
- soy wax and corn dextrin as water-soluble resists
- acrylic-based paints and mediums
- discharge paste
TRUE COLORS: Developing a Personal Palette
3 or 5 day workshop
For the dyer, the many choices of dye colors available can lead to confusion and disappointment in color outcomes. This class will help you choose the pure color that will suit you in developing your own personal palette. Carol has dyed over 80 individual palettes, which she will share with you through slide presentations, discussions, and hands -on dyeing. Brilliant yellows, passionate purples, rich reds, astounding blues and soothing greens as well as necessary neutrals will be yours to mix using Procion MX dyes.
This class will focus on
- developing skill in intuitive color mixing, based primarily on training the eye
- an understanding of the relationship between colors
- understanding warm and cool contrasts
- choosing your personal palette of pure reds, yellow, and blues, from which all hues can be mixed
- how to dye saturated, brilliant colors, and avoid mud when you choose to
- how to create interesting complex neutrals (Bring on the mud puddles!)
- how to shade from value to value and hue to hue
Students will dye up from 8 to 30 yards of cotton (depending on whether one-yard cuts or fat quarter cuts are chosen) using low water immersion techniques. On the first day, we will develop concepts through lecture and discussion, and do some exercises to get familiar with the pure hues. On the days following, we will dye yardage using low water immersion techniques, resulting in both solid-colored and multi-colored cloth and explore the possibilities of layering color to enrich the palette, both through overdyeing and through numerous printmaking techniques.
Neutral Territory: 50 Shades of Gray+ 50 Shades of Brown
5 day workshop: some experience with Procion MX dyes recommended
Have you been frustrated when the dye houses discontinue one of your favorite black dyes? Do you sigh in frustration, because all the samples you have developed with these dye go out the window?
Learn about making your own black mixes using fiber reactive Procion MX pure primary dyes. We will create the ever elusive
- Neutral blacks, that gradate to neutral grays
- Warm blacks, that gradate to pinky lavender
- Cool blacks, that gradate to steely blue
- Grunge blacks, that gradate to greenish hues
In addition the class will cover creation of many neutral studies–tans, browns, gray-blues, gray-reds, and other chromatic grays. Think of the palest alabaster to inky night sky–all values ranges will be examined. Taupes and tans can be fascinating as well–ecru, heath, titanium, putty, and driftwood. Sharing our results, we will compile a large reference book–our own 50 Shades of Gray will just be the beginning of our explorations in Neutral Territory, as we cross into 50 Shades of Brown as well.
From shibori to screen printing, neutrals pose their own unique dye challenges and opportunities. We will examine the particular tricks and tips for dyeing neutrals when using immersion, low water immersion, and thickened dye applications.
As time allows, interested students may also pursue discharge studies. When the subtleties and color shifts of discharge are added to the mix, possibilities explode!
Consideration of the evocative nature of neutral color, and ideas of combining neutrals with punchy colors will be discussed. From subtle atmosphere to dramatic moodiness, the range of expressiveness with neutrals is limitless.
Chromaticity: Flat and Glowing
5 day workshop: some experience with Procion MX dyes recommended
In this workshop we will be delving into the relationship between color and light. As David Hornung says in his text Colour,
“The relationship between color and light is one of the most powerful aspects of two-dimensional art. Light itself has a mysterious psychological effect. To see light appear to emanate from within a group of colors is an arresting visual experience.”
Of course, as artists in cloth, we want to translate these ideas to fabric, creating cloth that can convey pure, glowing color, that appears luminous when used, and creating partnered hues that are less glowing, less luminous, ready to be used as contrast in compositions.
To this end, students will learn three methods of creating flat/glowing pairs in hand-dyed cloth with Procion MX dyes, using color recipes provided as well as color inspiration they bring from personal inspiration files such as paint chips, photographs, and swatches.
In addition, we will learn four ways to create solid or nearly solid fabrics—two using low water immersion techniques and two using machines. To this end, Carol will bring tabletop machines for student use, and will discuss the methods of using larger machines for solid color dyeing. Students will dye up to one yard cuts of fabric pairs, testing the various methods presented.
Swapping and sharing of color recipes and samples will follow, so that students will emerge with a notebook of flat/glowing pairs and how to achieve them in their own studio practice, as well as yards of paired flat/glowing cloth.
Sustainability in dyeing has become an increasingly important topic. Methods of water conservation, both in dyeing and washout processes will be addressed.
TRANSFORMATIONS: Using Disperse Dyes
1 or 2 day workshop
Explore the world of transfer printing. Apply disperse dyes to paper with a multitude of printmaking processes, including spraying, stamping, screening and monoprinting, and then using an iron or heat press, transfer to a variety of cloth, including synthetic sheers, felt, lutradur, lame, poly satins and velvets, and drapery fabric. With the focus on experimentation and discovery, many small samples and studies will be made. In the two day class, we will begin small works with design exercises and applications in mixed media work will be explored.
Waxing Eloquent: Using Soy Wax Resist
2 day workshop: Some experience with Procion MX dyes recommended
Environmentally-friendly soy wax brings a modern twist to the ancient art of batik. Explore mark-making in free-flowing wax with simple tools such as inexpensive brushes, wood or metal stamps, found objects, or blank silkscreens. Create depth in the cloth while layering color on color on cottons, silks, and sheer organza using Procion MX dyes. The ease and fun of wax will encourage your playful side as you create fabulous visual texture and color on cloth.
Dyeing to Discharge
4 or 5 day workshop
Discover the possibilities of discharge– the removal of color from dyed cloth. First we will apply base color and then selectively remove and replace the color using immersion with stitched and pole wrap techniques, resist techniques with dextrin and wax, as well as stencil, screen printing, and block printing. Students will work toward a vocabulary of personal mark making, using complex layered imagery and color. Fabric samples showing specific dye colors and how they discharge will be produced for both cotton and silk. Safe studio practices are emphasized.
Pot O’Gold Dyeing
1 or 2 day workshop
The rainbow in a dyepot! If you have shied away from dyeing before because of time or space constraints, this method is for you. Less dye, less water, and less mess makes it all so easy. In this one-day class you will dye 24 pieces (up to 12 yards) of gorgeous multi-hued fabric.
A supply fee ($15) includes Procion MX dyes and auxiliaries, complete written instructions, and many recipes to help you stir up a rainbow. In the two day class, we will explore further the unlimited possibilities of low-water techniques, including folded and clamped resists, double dyeing, and direct application techniques.
