The first two days of "The sustainability of natural dyes" conference took place at Eastend hotel in Munnar, followed by two days of natural dyeing workshops (at an extra cost) at Aranya Natural's HQ. Due to limited numbers, all the spaces for the workshops filled up quickly, but many conference attendees requested [...]

 
Before visiting Munnar, I was not aware of the health issues related to tea plantation workers in India. Often foreign media would focus on the working conditions of garment factory workers, yet the problems related to tea plantation workers (primarily female) are largely ignored. Although they are not stuck inside cramped factories [...]

 
The purpose of my trip to India in February was to attend a natural dyeing conference. And it took place before COVID-19 changed our lives. Aranya Natural is a natural dyeing organisation under Srishti Trust in Munnar, supported by TATA Global Beverages Limited, which runs programs for the education training and rehabilitation [...]

 
Often it is easy to miss many excellent exhibitions in a big city like London, especially after Timeout got rid of its exhibitions listing when it became a free magazine. Meanwhile, the few art listing apps don't seem to be comprehensive either. This is when Instagram can be useful sometimes... it was [...]

 
 
Even though I live in London, I don't often venture away from my neighbourhood or the centre, and I had no idea where the Isle of Dogs is until I looked it up on google. I have not been to the Craft Central's new venue since they moved across town more [...]

 
When I returned from Asia, I managed to book myself onto the curator's tour of the "Living Colours: Kasane – the Language of Japanese Colour Combinations" exhibition at Japan House. The exhibition explores the natural dyed textile work of the Yoshioka Dyeing Workshop in Kyoto. Due to my interest in natural dyeing, it [...]

 
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One of the most fascinating studio visits in Kutch was a trip to master weaver, Vankar Shamji Vishram's indigo-dyeing and weaving studio in a village called Bhujodi. Shamji is the son of Shri Vishram Valji Vankar, who won the India's prestigious National Award [...]

A large bandhani piece we saw at Mr A A Wazir's house
 
I think many people are familiar with the term 'shibori' which is the Japanese technique of resist dyeing on cloth. The word itself means 'to wring, squeeze, press', and it is a way of manipulating the fabric to achieve the desired [...]

Ajrakhpur – the land of Ajrakh
 
Before my trip to India, my knowledge on Indian textiles was minimal, yet the textiles workshop at Somaiya Kala Vidya (see my earlier post) completely opened my eyes. I did not realise that block printing is such a complex and time-consuming process, especially when only natural dyes [...]

 
 
After my 10-day textiles workshop in Japan last year, I wanted to learn more about natural and indigo dyeing, so I did the Natural dyeing course for two terms at Morley College in London. The more I learnt about the subject, the more I realised that India had to be my [...]