Natural Dyeing: A Heritage of Colour at the V&A

It’s been an incredibly busy few weeks for us, but as we sit this weekend, a little dazed and exhausted, I can safely say our course ‘Natural Dyeing: A Heritage of Colour‘ at the V&A Academy couldn’t have gone better! There was a huge amount of preparation involved in getting ready to teach a comprehensive…

Natural Dyeing: A Heritage of Colour at the V&A

We’ve SOLD OUT! But if you’re interested you can add yourself to the waiting list for next year! We’re really excited about this wonderful development – we will be teaching at the V&A Academy in October delivering a week long comprehensive natural dyeing course. Our five day course at the V&A Academy runs from the 2nd to…

Handmade Experimental Brushes and Botanical Inks

On Saturday, Ross delivered a hugely successful Handmade Experimental Brushes and Botanical Inks Workshop at Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft. We were asked to deliver the workshop as park of a season of events to go with the excellent current exhibition Shōji Hamada: A Japanese Potter in Ditchling. Much like Ross… ‘Hamada developed a…

Natural Dyeing Course with Jenny Dean

Applications are now open for the 2022 Natural Dyeing Course at Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft, with renowned expert Jenny Dean, supported by our very own Ross Belton. This is the fourth time this incredibly popular course has run, and this year it will consist of 6 ‘in person’ Sundays at the Museum and…

Natural Dyeing at the Florence Trust – Discover the Beauty of Nature’s Palette

This summer, we are running a series of outdoor workshops at the Florence Trust starting on the 13th of July. On Tuesdays we have ‘Nature’s Palette‘, a 4 week comprehensive natural dyeing course and on Wednesdays we have our regular ‘Dyeing to Stitch‘ days with dyeing in the morning and stitching in the afternoon headed…

Summer Events Calendar – The Nomadic Dye Garden and Nave Gallery.

As we continue through the summer, our events and courses continue in the Nomadic Dye Garden. Our August Natural Dyeing Summer School has sold out and we continue to teach in the garden on Thursdays. Other than that, things are quieter in the build up to our Open September, more information to follow. This page…

Spring has Sprung

With the weather improving (24° this afternoon!) and our obligations to the Contemporary Textile Fair complete, it’s full steam ahead at the Nomadic Dye Garden. With the COVID restrictions being relaxed, the garden will be opening May Day Bank Holiday weekend. We have such a great opportunity this year as the garden has been expanded…

Final Week Part 2 – The Weekend

By Saturday our luck had really changed re the weather, though 4 weeks of wonderful warm sunshine in September was an amazing run. Rainy sleety awfulness had set in and the idea of creating solar jars in a blizzard somehow didn’t seem promising. A rolling fire later and we were ready for visitors! Once again…

Final Week Part 1 – Equinox Harvest

Well we did it… Our ‘Open September’ has come to an end, and what a grand success. Coming out of lockdown and with a very limited growing season, we managed with a lot of kindness and help to open ‘BALCONYLIFE A Collection and Nomadic Dye Garden’ to the public. With the final week approaching, unsurprisingly we had…

Fourth Week – Experimental Brushes and an Indigo Taster

Week 4 of our ‘Open September’, and the garden is thriving – the madder is loving its new more spacious container and the weld finally looks like its alive and willing to take part in this project! The woad is doing well in the troughs and fortunately whatever was picnicking on it has moved on….

Third Week – White Linen, Indigo and a Birthday

Week three and we have been dyeing in the garden, even if it was just reviving an old indigo vat, which due to circumstance has lain idle this year. The impromptu garden set up with Cat worked a treat. It’s always a little daunting when planning a ‘play date’ as you never know what your…

Second Week – Open Studio and Garden

Our first full week (well Thursday to Sunday) of being open to the public has been a great success, with a stream of neighbours and inquisitive locals plus friends and colleagues from further afield coming to visit us. It has been quite a challenge to get the studio organised so that visitors can safely enter…