The Workshop Series: One-Step Natural Dyeing
As a natural dyer, you’d love all that you create. And yet, when you set yourself on a mission to reproduce something from the past, you’d most likely falter at creating an exact match. In unpredictability lies the beauty of natural dyeing and a major deterrent to adoption on a large scale. Not to mention time-consuming processes like mordanting and controlled dye extraction necessary to achieve colorfast results and desired shade. ColorAshram bridges this gap with its unique, standardized, ready-to-use dye powders and one-step natural dyeing.
It's Like In Your Kitchen
Think about cooking your favorite savory dish. You could either work your way from scratch, grinding raw spices and other ingredients. Or you could prepare it with pre-packed masala powders. There’s no contesting the distinct flavor and aroma that freshly-ground spices give. And yet, most of us find it more convenient and easy to use the latter to save time and achieve the same quality and taste every time we cook the dish. One-step dye powders work the same way. No grinding barks, roots or leaves. No simmering for hours to extract dyes. No long hours spent mordanting. Only a pre-mixed quantity of mordants, dye extracts, and natural ingredients - developed through intensive research in nearly two decades of natural dyeing - that help achieve consistent shades every time you dye with the powders. Plus, there’s the benefit of reduced dyeing time too!
Workshops To Take You From Amateur To Expert
The simplest and easiest means to get started with the one-step dyeing process is using the DIY kit. The kit, packed with two shades of the standardized dye powders (Haldi Yellow and Madder Red), pre-treated organic cotton napkins, wooden cloth pegs, a strainer fabric, ice cream sticks, and an instruction manual, gives you a sneak peek into what ColorAshram’s unique formulation and process have to offer. There’s also a bonus tutorial video that simplifies the dyeing method for first-time users.
At the next level, the workshop unveils ColorAshram’s secret sauces for well-dyed fabrics or garments using ready-to-dye powders. The sessions reveal the magic numbers and ratios that give rise to consistent results and similar shades on repeated trials and prepare you for dyeing larger fabrics of 1 to 2 meters and garments like t-shirts, tunics, and pants. They also guide you in fabric preparation processes, dye powder combinations for shade variations, and dye bath storage and revival techniques for the judicious use of standardized dye powders.
As you progress to the advanced level, the workshop switches to offline one-on-one sessions comprising custom training built on your production needs, setup, and fabric quality. It arms you with the theoretical and practical know-how of using ready-to-dye powders for professional dyeing and standardized results on small batch sizes. Brands and dyeing artists can also utilize these sessions to learn yarn dyeing or develop solutions custom-built to their needs, including training their dyeing partner to switch to the one-step dyeing process.