Author: Harmony Weavers Guild

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“Natural Dyeing with Local Plants”presented by Carol Ireland

November Program — Zoom and in-person
November 14 @ 10:00 a.m.
Brandywine Town Center
4050 Brandywine Parkway — Wilmington, DE 19803

It’s hard to resist the temptation to try dyeing with almost any flower, leaf, bark or root once
one gets a taste of the beauty of yarns dyed with extracts from local plants — soft yellow
from Queen Anne’s Lace, rich yellow from goldenrod, orange-yellow from osage orange sawdust, intense bronze orange from Dyer’s Coreopsis, reds from madder, and of course, blue from indigo. This talk will cover some of the basics of natural dyeing, including the all-important step of mordanting fibers. The differences between dyeing plant and animal fibers, and the unique process for creating an indigo dye bath will be included. The presentation will include demonstrating dyeing in a few dye pots.

We will be meeting jointly with the Countryside Garden Club of Hockessin. The Garden Club
currently maintains the herb garden at Tweeds Tavern, a historic building in Hockessin. They are investigating whether to develop a dyers garden in this location.

Carol Ireland has been a member of Harmony Weavers Guild for about 20 years. She started on her fiber arts journey by learning to knit, crochet and sew from her mother. A weaving course in college was the start of her 50+ year interest in weaving. She’s been spinning for almost 30 years. After raising two daughters and retiring from DuPont (where she worked as a chemist for 32 years) she was able to devote more time to weaving. Natural dyeing was added to the mix primarily as a result of textile tours in Thailand, Laos, Mexico, Peru and Japan that included natural dyeing demonstrations and workshops.

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Building Pattern and Palette: The Use of WovenShibori with Natural Dyes

October 10 @ 10:00 a.m. — Zoom and in-person, Business meeting to follow

Brandywine Town Community Center
4050 Brandywine Parkway — Wilmington, DE 19803

Building Pattern and Palette: The Use of Woven Shibori with Natural Dyes
presented by Catherine Ellis


Catharine Ellis has been using woven shibori as a means of applying pattern to her textiles for many years. From simple 4 shaft monk’s belt to complex twills and Jacquard structures, she has used the loom as a vehicle for integrating resist threads into the woven cloth.
Dyeing is an integral part of woven shibori. It can be done with any dye that is suitable to the textile itself; but Catharine has brought a clear focus to the use of natural dyes for her own work. She will talk about why she made the choice to use natural colorants and the opportunities that those dyes present. Catharine is the author of Woven Shibori (Interweave Press, 2005, 2015) and The Art and Science of Natural
Dyes, with co-author Joy Boutrup (Schiffer Press 2019).

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“Effective Use of Materials and Color” presented by Kathrin Weber

September’s Program — Zoom and in-person
Thursday, September 12 @ 10:00 a.m.
Brandywine Town Center
4050 Brandywine Parkway — Wilmington, DE 19803
“Effective Use of Materials and Color” presented by Kathrin Weber

Kathrin Weber has been a full-time studio fiber artist since 1980. Her work revolves around dyeing, weaving and teaching. She has a fearless enjoyment in using hand-dyed color in her teaching, shop sales, and weaving. She enthusiastically encourages students to dive into color. No matter what her classes are officially entitled, they are ultimately about color, technique and weaving good fabric.

Do you have yarn in various colors, textures, weights, yarn types that you are not sure what to do with? Perhaps you have a lovely yarn that may not be strong enough for that warp you want to wind. Or your yarn is too fine or too big or the colors are too bright and they don’t go together. Or, to be honest, the yarn you have been hoarding is just too dang expensive to use! How do you make a little go a long way?

This Zoom lecture with images will help you think of creative ways to plan and execute woven projects of mixed yarn types and colors that you might have thought would never go together technically or visually. Spend a little time with Kathrin thinking, “What if…?” And then dig through your yarn closet for hidden treasures waiting to be woven. To learn more about Kathrin, visit her website https://www.blazingshuttles.com/.

The Zoom link will be sent to you through an i.o. group email