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Day One: We arrive with our notebooks, aprons, and coffee in hand, ready to immerse ourselves in mud! Michele hands out instructions and recipes...
I had recently begun reading "Colour: Travels through the Paintbox" (Victoria Finlay) when I discovered Maiwa Textile Symposium: The Global Cloth. This month long event, included a 2 day workshop on Mudprinting with Michele Whipplinger, a renowned natural dyes colour expert. Having recently started dyeing my own yarns and fibres, I applied for and recieved a scholarship from my provincial guild The Hand Weavers, Spinners & Dyers of Alberta. I would like to express my sincere gratitude for being given this opportunity to immerse myself in this unique "hands on" learning experience... and what could be more appropriate than mud?
Day One: We arrive with our notebooks, aprons, and coffee in hand, ready to immerse ourselves in mud! Michele hands out instructions and recipes...
Tannins are naturally occurring chemical compounds found in many plants that are widely available throughout the world. They can be found in tree bark, fruits, grasses, tea and chocolate. They give many foods their astringent quality and can be used as a mordant to prepare fibres for mudprinting, painting with ochres and dyeing with natural dyes. Tannins can be made from locally available sources, and work best on cellulose based fibres. We used four tannins: (in photo)Myrobalm, Pomegranate, Chestnut and Tannic Acid (oak galls). Each tannin has it's own "colour" which can be used as a design element as well.
This cotton sample was first prepared with an alum mordant. Although tannins are traditionally applied over the entire fabric, they can also be applied using a brush, stencil, or screen printing technique.
Tannins can also be thickened using Locust bean paste. This assists the tannin design to "stay put" on the cotton sample.
Natural dyes (pictured here in orange, red, blue and green) were applied to the sampler using brushes and traditional wooden printing blocks.
Areas of the sampler were then blocked out with masking tape. This was in preparation for application of the "mud".
Muds are made from soils that are rich in minerals, and therefore their colours are unique to each geographical region of the world in which they are collected. Michele applies a thick layer of "Burnt Sienna" which is a mixture of hematite and magnesium oxide. This dark rich chocolate "mud" is found in Turkey.
... but the back view looks very interesting! The sampler must now "cure". Traditionally the fabric is set out to bake in the sun. We were advised to let our samplers cure for 1 - 3 months!
Day Two: Working with Dyes and Pigments. Dyes are made from organic plant and animal materials such as indigo, madder, roots, bark, berries and flowers to name a few. Pigments are derived from inorganic materials which are metal / iron based. This beautiful blue pigment is one of the rarest, and was traditionally used by the Mayan people of Central America.
Our sampler is an antique linen napkin. It was initially mordanted with the 4 tannins, and then painted with four different organic pigments.
We used soymilk! The protein in the soy binds the pigment to the cloth. Organic soy beans are soaked until plump. Drain. Pour beans and fresh filtered water into a blender and process until a fine milky mixture results. Strain the mixture using a straining cloth. Repeat these steps until all the the soy milk is recovered.
Our final project was painting a silk shawl. The shawls were first mordanted with alum, followed by a layer of soy mixture which would act as both a binder (for the pigments and dyes) and as sizing (to prevent the dyes and pigments from "travelling" into each other). Now it was time to play!
The following photos are just a few of the beautiful fabrics that surrounded us as we worked on our own creations.
Many fabrics tell stories. Symbolism is often indigenous to the culture in which the fabric is produced.
This beautiful fabric appeared to require several
applications of different pigments before the final effect was obtained.
In conclusion: Mudprinting with Michele Whipplinger was a terrific introduction to working with muds, tannins,pigments and natural dyes. I returned home with several samples, and at present they are still in the "curing" stage. I would like to again express my gratitude to the Handweavers, Spinners and Dyers Guild of Alberta for the scholarship that I received, and hope that people will find this website both a source of useful information and inspiration for their pursuits in this intriguing area of textile arts.
