Guild Workshops & Lectures
Workshops:
Workshops can be combined or lengthened to fit the time available. The minimum time for the dye classes is three hours and for the discharge class is six hours. To see videos showing samples from my classes, click here.
Dye Boot Camp
In this basic workshop, learn all the skills you need to start dyeing your own cotton fabric. This fast-paced workshop starts with a discussion of safety, and of the supplies needed to easily create gorgeous, washfast color on fabric. Then the class will practice dyeing a single solid color, then move on to color and value scales and color mixing.
Transparent, Layered Color with Dyes
Transparency is everywhere in the quilting world! Dyeing your own fabrics is a great way to get just the hues and values you need. We will be focusing on dyeing fabrics with minimal amounts of white for results that look most like the layering of different colors. Samples of transparency in quilts will be shown and discussed. This is a beginner workshop where you can learn all the skills you need to start dyeing your own cotton fabric. Plus you’ll get great recipes to start you on yourdye color journey. We’ll start with a discussion of safety, and of the supplies needed to easily create gorgeous, washfast color on fabric.
No Muss, No Fuss – Thickened MX Dye Exploration
This class is your chance to experiment with thickened MX dyes. Screen printing, mono-printing, direct application and color mixing will be covered. Everybody will be able to sample each process and the different tools used with each, so this will be fast-paced, fun and exciting. For class supplies you have two options – buy a kit or bring supplies from home. This class has been consistently popular at the shows where Lisa teaches.
Manipulation: It’s a Good Thing
This class explores different ways to manipulate fabric before putting it into the dye bath. Folding, pleating, clamping, stitching and tying will be covered. As with the other classes, we cover all the basics of dyeing with MX.
Because Lisa loves stitching, that can be the only focus of the class, with some modifications for timing. When held as an in-person class, schedule it for a week or two after a guild lecture to allow your group time to stitch.
Dyeing with Poles: Arashi Shibori Techniques
In this workshop, we’ll be exploring different ways to wrap fabric around a piece of plastic pipe or other core and the patterns each generate. The basics of dyeing with MX will be covered.
Introduction to Discharge
Create unique and magical colors and designs with discharge – the systematic, deliberate removal of color from fabric. Working with various fabrics, we will learn how to remove color in immersion baths of bleach or Thiox, and with thickened discharge agents, while keeping the fabric and, most important, the dyer safe. This class must be held outside, preferably under cover. Six hours minimum.
Also available: 90 minute discharge lecture.
Lectures
Lectures all include a trunk show of fabrics as well as quilts and are edited on the fly to fit the time available. Questions are encouraged!
Tools of the trade – OK, tools of all sorts are fascinating. You might be surprised at some of the things we use in the studio, borrowed from the kitchen, the wood shop, the sign-making company where Lisa once worked . . . the list goes on!
The drab little quilt that brought color to my life – how the craziness that is DippyDyes got started.
“You mean that started out white?” and other questions we hear.
Discharge – the systematic, deliberate removal, and sometimes replacement of color in fabric. Includes a video section that lets you watch discharge happen without wearing breathing protection.
The ‘P’ word – polyester. Before you say ‘yuck’, there ARE so many things that can be done with synthetic fabrics that don’t work with cotton. Great for art quilters.
Fees:
Workshops cost $400 for a half day, or $700 for a full day. Lectures alone cost $350. This does not include class supplies per person or travel expenses. For a savings, combine the workshop with a lecture! Maximum class size is twenty people, depending upon the facility available. Thickened Dye Exploration can accomodate twenty-four people. Classes can also be held at the studio: indoors for one or two people, or outdoors up to eight people.
Updated 03/09/2022