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AT THE JOHN C CAMPBELL FOLK SCHOOL, BRASSTOWN, NORTH CAROLINA
November 9 - November 15 2025
No experience necessary!
Madder (Rubia tinctorum), a natural dye powerhouse that has been used for thousands of years, gives vibrant, lasting, and strong reds! Learn how to identify, cultivate, and harvest these plants and to coax color from the roots. Wield a variety of tones, ranging from deepest red to plum to peach to pink. Focus on printing in the tradition of 19th-century calico bandanas of red, white, and black and create and block print your own designs on classic cotton handkerchiefs.
Don’t tell the other dye plants but whenever anyone asks what my favorite natural dye plant is I always say Madder! It is an incredibly potent and versatile root that can express such a big range of colors when paired with different mordants - which is exactly what we are going to be doing in this class!
Pink, Plum, Red, Maroon, Lavender and everything in between!
In this workshop, we’ll introduce and explore printing with natural dye mordants in order to create repeat prints on fabric.
We will be using blocks from the archive to print designs and patterns onto cloth, then developing the prints in an infusion made with the roots of the Madder plant!
Please contact me if you have any questions!