Natural dye workshop

Corinne will explain the process of obtaining dye material, how to process the dye material, how to prepare the dye pots, how to dye with the natural dyes and how to mordant the fiber in order that it is color fast. All dye materials and mordants are natural and non caustic.

Each person will be provided small skeins of yarn to mordant and dye in four different dye pots and will leave with 8 different samples of nature's palette and a pattern for a small knit project. All materials are provided. (Please bring lunch)

BIO

Corinne Lilie of Black Sheep Studio has been spinning and dyeing with natural dyes since 1980. While attending the University of Georgia getting her fine art degree, she lived in a small Appalachian community where she taught 32 people to read and learned from them how to spin, weave and dye with natural dyes. She had a small flock of sheep of her own. The cyclical nature of her craft is a life that is in sync with nature and has become a way of life for Corinne. In her world everything is connected and everything comes full circle from the colors yielded by dye plants to the availability of fiber, thus her life is dictated by the seasons.

Corinne's knowledge of natural dyes was further enhanced via her worldwide travels which took her to dyers in Morocco, Africa and the Middle East. She has given talks and demonstrations all over the United States. Here on Cape Cod she regularly can be found demonstrating spinning at local festivals, farmers' markets and has given talks at the Cape Cod Museum of Art, Cotuit Historical Society, Centerville and Sturgis Libraries, Dennis Manse and the Cultural Center of Cape Cod.

Corinne is also a beekeeper and accomplished watercolorist living with her cat Samantha and rabbits Magic and Rosemary in Marstons Mills. She is working on a new book titled, "Outside The Classroom" which explores her personal journey and enrichment as a student beyond the classroom walls in NE Georgia where she learned the craft of natural dyeing.