The Art of Natural Dyeing for Wool

This is an outline of what to expect for the course. Each day will start with tea, coffee and a welcome to the day’s activities.  

Day one 

We will start in our fabulous Fashion & Textiles facilities with an introductory look at the history of natural dye, with pastoral historical content on homespun and homestead dyeing, taking a look at historical research by Ethel Mairet on vegetable dyes from the early 20th century. We will use this knowledge to frame the modern natural dye techniques we use on this course.  

We will then explore the beautiful campus gardens, with a foraging walk to learn about and collect a range of hedgerow items that can be used for natural dye. Back in our professional textile studio, you will learn about the safe use of our dye-labs and the modern environmentally friendly chemicals we use to extract natural dye. The rest of the day will be spent experimenting with the foraged materials to prepare natural dye, exploring this creative process. 

Day two 

On the second day, we’ll be using your foraged dye to experiment with a series of shades to learn about the process of graduated colour. There will be time for exploration and play at this stage, with plenty of chance to practice dyeing samples. You’ll be encouraged to add your graduated samples and recipes to a folder that you can take away. Finally, you’ll be supported to dye your merino wool with your chosen colour, from a range of pre-prepared natural dyes. The course will finish with a review of everyone’s work and a chance to discuss learnings from the 2 days. 

​​Expect the invitation to work with ‘nature as teacher’ on this course, with two days focused on sustainability in the world of textile design offering a meaningful, biophilic learning experience. You will gain hands on experience as well as engage with academic and historical content as we explore each stage of the sustainable dye process, with the theme of connecting to nature through our sustainable practise. 

​This will be an in-depth course, with hands-on practical experience of each step of the natural dye process together with supported notation for your samples so that you can create your dye and recipe folder for further learning after the course. 

​An outline of the timings to expect each day is below. 

​Arrival: 9.30am (welcome, refreshments, and a discussion of the day ahead) 

​Morning session: 10am – 1pm 

​Lunch: 1pm – 2pm 

​Afternoon session: 2pm - 5pm 

All materials you will need are provided. Please wear suitable shoes and bring a suitable coat to explore our campus gardens in case of rain. We’ll supply a lab coat for the natural dyeing sessions but bear in mind you’ll be working with dyes, so we recommend wearing clothes that you don’t mind getting messy just as a precaution. 

Tea and coffee will be provided each day. You may wish to bring a reusable water bottle with you. 

​​All materials you will need are included in the course fee, along with tea and coffee each day.​ 

Tea/coffee is included, with all diets catered for. Please note: lunch is not included in the course cost, we recommend bringing a packed lunch or visiting one of our on-campus cafés.​  

This course is taught in our professional-standard textile studio and natural dye lab facilities at our Fashion and Textiles Institute, in a lovely light-filled building on our Penryn campus. On day one, we will also be exploring the beautiful campus grounds and gardens to forage for a range of plants and natural materials that we can experiment with to make dye. 

There is plenty of parking available on our Penryn campus and you can also reach us via a range of public transport options. You can find out more, here.  

Suitable for people with a keen interest in natural dyeing, design practice, textile making, visual arts, 3D crafts, and creative practice. 

You may already have some experience of dyeing and wish to extend your knowledge into dyeing yarn, or you may be a beginner. No previous experience or prior knowledge is required. 

​​​Accommodation is not included in this course cost. If you would like to book accommodation, please see our accommodation for short course students page for a range of options. ​ 

​​​There are wheelchair accessible areas in the textile studio, however there are some limited access areas that are used in this course. These are some areas of the campus gardens, the dye lab and the screen wash area. Unfortunately these are not step-free. Please contact us if you have questions about accessibility requirements.​