Harvesting Color
The main product of this class will be a set of approximately 50 – 5” sample swatches, made of 5 different fibers: cotton, linen, wool, silk dupion and silk organza.
Not scheduled right now. Last taught 2026.
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The workshop
The main product of this class will be a set of approximately 50 – 5” sample swatches, made of 5 different fibers: cotton, linen, wool, silk dupion and silk organza. Students will leave the class with an extensive color library. On the first day of class we will prepare all the cloth for the dye bath with proper scouring and mordanting for both cellulose and protein fibers. Then we will head to the Sanborn Mills dye garden to harvest the flowers we will use in our dye baths. At this time of year there will be many plants available for collection. We will look for leaves from trees, nuts, bark, wildflowers, and roots. We can even experiment with some food scraps that give good color. We will bring these treasures back to the studio to photograph, identify and then prepare for dyeing. Most everything will need a good long soak overnight before we make dye baths. Possibilities for modifying colors by changing ph, adding iron, and over-dyeing with indigo will be explored. An indigo vat will be available for overdyeing sections of the color swatches. Students are welcome to bring dye materials from their own gardens or other materials from their home environments to experiment with. Students may also bring 1 or 2 piece of natural fiber clothing from home that they would like to overdye.
Skills and techniques
- Fiber preparation: scouring for cellulose and protein
- Identifying dye materials in the dye garden and the field
- Mordanting with alum potassium sulfate and alum acetate
- Modifying colors with soda ash, citric acid and iron after-baths
- Overdyeing with indigo to expand color range
- Making sample swatches of dye colors on different fibers: good record keeping
Before you come
Details for students
Where
One of the farm's studios, confirmed at check-in. See the campus
Staying on the farm
Housing, meals, the daily schedule, and places to stay nearby are on Prepare for your workshop.
Your instructor
Sara Goodman
Sara is a textile artist, that is, she is a dyer, weaver, spinner, stitcher, surface designer and lover of all things with color and cloth. She was instrumental in the conception and creation of the Natural Dye Studio at Sanborn Mills Farm and maintains her own teaching facility in Center Harbor, NH on Squam Lake. Over 20 years ago Sara stopped using chemical dyes and dedicated herself to using only natural dyes in her work. She felt the times demanded a closer examination of process and an effort to do whatever she could to work sustainably in terms of her methods and materials. Her work has been featured in major textile art publications and shown in national and international exhibitions such as Julie's Artisans Gallery in New York, the Cambridge Artists's Collective in Massachusetts, the Textile Society of America conference held at SCAD in Savannah, Georgia and Living with Craft at the Sunapee Craft Fair in New Hampshire. She is a juried member of the League of NH Craftsmen. Sara has traveled throughout the world in the pursuit of textiles to: Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, Japan, Indonesia, Nepal, India, and China. This travel eventually involved her in projects with local artisans; for example helping to get the Symplocos Project off the ground in Indonesia. Sara served for six years on the Board of Directors of the Goodweave Foundation, an NGO dedicated to eliminating child slave labor in the handmade carpet industry in South Asia. After her board term ended in 2012, she was invited to design a collection of handwoven carpets, based on her original shibori designs, for Khawachen Inner Asia in Hanover, NH. Then in November of 2014 she attended the World Shibori Conference in Hangzhou, China where she delivered a paper entitled, "Weaving Hope: Goodweave Certified Shibori Designed Carpets". Three of her pieces, two carpets and one handwoven, shibori lined coat, were in the exhibition held at the National Silk Museum in Hangzhou. Sara enjoys teaching, initiating young and experienced makers to the deep satisfaction that comes with making something by hand. She has led workshops at the Arrowmont School of Crafts in Gatlinburg, TN; at the Maiwa School of Textiles in Vancouver, B.C. and at the Pacific Northwest Art School on Whidbey Island in Washington State. For 15 years she has taught a beginning weaving class for the League of NH Craftsmen in Center Sandwich called, "Five Warps in Five Days."
Questions about this workshop, housing, or meals? Email registrar@sanbornmills.org or call (603) 435-7314. Please read the workshop policies before you register.