Jaipur: Natural Dyeing and Shibori Tie & Dye Workshop

Colour out of waste

The dyes in this workshop come from things that would otherwise be thrown away — onion skins, pomegranate rind, marigold heads from temple offerings, tea, turmeric, madder root, indigo. Every one of them is a colour, and by the end of the session you will have made several of them yourself.

Rajasthan has dyed cloth this way for centuries; the synthetic dyes that displaced it are one of the larger polluters of Indian rivers. Doing it the old way here is a practical point rather than a sentimental one.

Shibori

The resist technique: you bind, fold, twist, clamp or stitch the cloth so that the dye cannot reach parts of it, and the pattern is whatever the binding leaves behind.

You will learn several of the standard methods — itajime, folding and clamping between shapes; kumo, bound around small objects for spider-web bursts; arashi, wrapped on a pole for diagonal rain lines; and simple stitched resist.

The unwrapping at the end is the part everyone enjoys, because you genuinely cannot predict it.

How the session runs

Artisans lead it in a working studio, not a classroom. You prepare the fabric, mix and heat the dye baths, bind your piece, dye it, oxidise it — indigo comes out of the vat green and turns blue in the air, which never stops being satisfying — then rinse and dry.

Around four hours, and most of that is you doing things rather than watching.

What you take home

The pieces you dyed. You can also bring a garment, a scarf or a tote of your own to work on — a plain cotton or silk item, nothing synthetic, because the dyes will not take.

Practical

Wear clothes you do not mind marking, or roll your sleeves properly. Aprons and gloves are provided, and natural dye washes out of skin in a day or two regardless.

All materials and fabric are included.