Botanical Inks natural dyeing workshops

Babs picked some fresh flowers on her way to teach about bundle dyeing at Hamilton House, and at the start of the workshop, she places them amongst the kilner jars full of dried onion skins, rose petals and mugwort in front of us. The idea that you can find items in Stokes Croft, which will add colour to silk in an area of Bristol where the greyest of cement is only offset by spray painted walls and doorways, is exhilarating. 

The participants are a mixture of art and craft; Andrea, the silk designer who upcycled; Katherine, the student, Kristine the yarn dye, Tash the illustrator, the paper maker from Bath, the one in arts management, and the one in printing. 

Bristol-based Elizabeth – Babs – Behan, who is leading the workshop, is the founder of Botanical Inks. She uses natural pigments and materials to: “make biologically nutritious designs as part of an eco-centric creative process”. 

The mulberry silk you could purchase on the night for £13 was grown in Hertfordshire. The silk itself was processed in Turkey because the UK silk industry has long ago faded and there is no processing done locally anymore. Babs is trying to set her up with someone in the UK though.

The silk has been processed (or soaked) with a mordant that will help the colours develop once the flowers are added and steamed.  “Where can we get the aluminum mordant?” someone asks. Babs replies, “On the internet. It’s easily available.” Her style is natural and with tendencies towards generalising. This isn’t a class to learn about chemistry. The emphasis is on the possibilities of the world around us. 

Babs forages native, British plant-based materials and creates colourfast textile dyes without the use of synthetic chemicals or metals. She tells us of how she is responsible for co-producing the Bristol Cloth project, along with Emma Hague from the Bristol Textile Quarter.

The silk gets sprayed with Aspalls apple cider vinegar and flowers are added in. Then the silk is folded over. It gets rolled into a snail and tied up before being put in the steamer.

Spraying more vinegar. The acid increases the pH of the silk and helps the dye set when it steams later on.

We create our own silk dyed bundles. I make the sad mistake of not putting enough material in mine but I do add a fragrant bay leaf. Even if herbs don’t give a colour, it’s nice to have ones with a medicinal quality. The bay leaf in mine made it smell like the Ethicurean’s Collectors vermouth. An unexpected comforting and medicinal touch. 

We add our names to the tags on our bundles before steaming. We have to turn them every 15 minutes and everything gets mixed up so the tag is important if you want to go home with the right one. 

Now we wait. The room is littered with books such as by Jennie Dean who is the UK goddess of natural dyeing.

I get out and explore some of Hamilton House and the bar. The workshop is in its element in the bohemian Stokes Croft area. In the hallway there is an upright piano and down the corridor a drama group are rehearsing. Downstairs by the entrance there is a deluge of posters and advertisements. The bar serves Monkey Shoulder, a triple blend of single malt whiskeys. 

Towards the end of the hour there is a sudden rush to be done and we remove the bundles from the steamer. It’s not only the waiting around. There is a lot of curiosity about how the patterns will transfer into art.

We admire everyone’s work with a sense of excitement at the unveiling. It’s not exactly a fashion house display of creations but craft has its own special power. You may never use it again but you did make it and you could make the next one even better and the one after that even better.  

 Some have worked beautifully well even if (or perhaps because) they look more like heavily-loaded focaccia loaves.

Babs’ final piece has more colour than some of the rest. 

We walk away with dyed silk and the knowledge of how to make more. 

The next workshops are even more interesting. 

Shibori  With Local Plant Dyes Thursday 5 May, 6-9pm, £55
Learn the traditional Japanese technique of Shibori fold + clamp resist dyeing, using reclaimed wooden blocks to create exquisite repeat patterns. A variety of local plant dyes will be available to use, made from foraged wild-plants, organic produce and food waste. A length of organic British silk is provided to dye with and make your own scarf.

Organic Indigo Vat Dyeing & Shibori Thursday 26 May: 6-9pm, £85
An opportunity to learn the technique of vat dyeing with a traditional organic indigo recipe of fermented plant and mineral materials, and no synthetic chemicals. Create alluring organic indigo dyed textiles for your home or wardrobe and experiment with Shibori fold and clamp (Itajime)techniques.