The Dye Kitchen is now open by appointment only.
Please contact viv at the gallery by pm if you are wanting to use the dye kitchen facilities.
Self directed with help available on site from viv davy.
Koha donation towards wear and tear on equipment.
Space allows for 4 people
Place: The Dye Kitchen space at ‘from out of the blue studio gallery’.
18 Halse Place. Opunake 4616.
Please bring all your own fabrics and threads that you want to dye as well as any objects you want to use for creating bundles with including rubber bands or tying threads. You will also need to be able to create a label to identify your objects. Your materials will need to be pre-mordanted if that is the way you want to work.
The open dye kitchen can be used for conventional dying as in using a dye bath or for bundle dying either in clear water or in a dye bath.
Every third Sunday of the month in the morning ‘from out of the blue studio gallery’ will have dye baths created from plants in the garden. This will be pre-cooked and strained and ready for use.
People signed up for the dye kitchen that day will be able to use the week’s dye baths either for immersive dyeing or for bundle dyeing – depending on what is wanted
If you are working in the dye kitchen you will need to come with sealed containers to take your cooked works home in. Work cannot be left in the kitchen from week to week unless you make arrangements with viv around drying it on site. There is not a lot of protected space on site for drying dyed works.
Sunday 21st September – special opportunity to try a selection of mordants including plant based ones.
July 12th – Feijoa Tree Prunings – wood.
July 5th – Feijoa Tree Prunings. This week will be fresh leaves and soft new growth shoots.
June 28th – Special talk by Lizzy Leckie about her mapping Colour. A Textural Exhibition of An Exploration of Plant Dyes.
June 22 – Cancelled due to power supply issues.
June 14th – Purple Cabbage small dye bath. Corokia soft stems and leaves slow cooked on woodstove. See Instagram posts for coloured images.
June 7th – Corokia soft stems and leaves slow cooked on woodstove. See Instagram posts for coloured images.
May 31st – Kawakawa soft tissue – leaves and twigs long cooked in big copper pot.
There is also still a grape prunings dye pot available.
May 24th – Grape prunings.
May 15th – Second cooking of Loquat to get the pink colours.
May 8th – Loquat tree branches and leaves. This dye pot will be started for this week but it is a slow repeat cook dye source so the colour this week will be on the yellowish colour. The pot will then be strained and the material repeatedly heated for the following week which will give the pink colour associated with loquat dyeing.
May 1st – separated flowers and leaves+stems. We are moving the Tansy bed so it is being clear harvested. Anyone wanting roots of tansy for their own dye garden is welcome to come and collect them free of charge. Please txt to let us know what you plan so we can have the materials ready for you to take.
April 24th – Griselinia lucida prunings off the pathways but including the woody growth as well as the leaves. cooked in the large copper pot – so there will be tannin from the woody elements and copper from the pot acting as mordant in the dye bath.
April 17th – Griselinia lucida prunings off the pathways – this week will be only the leaves very slowly simmered in the hope of producing the pink colour that comes from these leaves when they are contact printed. They are cooked in a stainless steel pot so not mordanted.
March 27th – Canna Lillies – leaf and stem growth only.
March 20th – Bottle Brush prunings will be cooked in the large copper pot as this tree sadly has damaged limbs we must prune back.
March 13th – Bottle Brush prunings will be cooked in the large copper pot as this tree sadly has damaged limbs we must prune back.
March 6th – Assorted dried gum tree leaves that have had a long pre-soak and have then been cooked in the large copper vessel.
February 27th – Tansy flowers and tansy leaves – deep rich golden yellows. Prepared without any iron or copper involved.
