This week I had the opportunity to tag along with Lisa Reber as she presented a lecture on fabric dyeing techniques. She also taught a thickened dye class to the Lancaster modern Quilt Guild.
Her lecture was a short trunk show of a few of her quilts with an explanation of many dyeing techniques with examples of dyed fabrics.
Lisa is a self proclaimed fabric dyeing geek. She obviously has a huge passion for exploring all the ways dye will take to fabric. She rattles off huge compound words, talks about molecules, temperatures, and proportions without consulting any notes. But her presentation is certainly anything but dry. She literally strokes some of the fabrics and displays utter pleasure at the sensation they provide while describing the fabric content of warp and weft.
Her audience drank in the information she provided. They responded with many pertinent questions and were eager to learn as they passed around the fabrics for closer examination.
Many stayed into the afternoon for her class titled Thickened Dye Explorations. She had tables set up with stations for each technique. Students had 1/2 hour to try out each with their own previously prepared fabrics.
The room became a beehive of activity and animation as students eagerly experimented with exclamations of surprise and delight at the results.
It was playtime with messy ingredients. It also seemed to take a certain amount for bravery and courage to try new uncharted territory for many. I heard one student say, “this is terrifying”, before she lifted her fabric to reveal a beautiful bold design.
Not all results were as expected but that seemed to be part of the learning experience. Sometimes I heard gasps of pure joy with the results.
If you would like to see excerpts from the lecture you may find it here.
If you would like to see excerpts from the thickened dye explorations class you may find it here. Pardon some of the camera and lighting angles as it was a new experience for me to videotape a class while working around an audience. Some of the camera angles are pretty hilarious.
You will also find Lisa’s website, dye and notion sources below the videos when you visit the links.
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