Jessica Kaufman is the founder and owner of WAXON Studio in West Asheville, NC. She recently joined Tammy Elwell to talk about her relationship with the Folk School, her dyeing process, and realizing her dream of creating batik and tie-dye kitchen textiles. Enjoy our interview!
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I find joy in the color blue… more specifically, I find joy in dyeing with indigo. Each time I pull a piece out of my dye vat, I am in awe of the magical transformation. Like many avocational dyers, I order my natural, processed powdered indigo for my dye vats from a supplier. Then I learned that indigo can be grown in this region, and that one type, Japanese indigo, grows especially well here. How wonderful to learn that Farmer Teddy, the Folk School gardener, was planning to grow indigo in the school’s new dye garden for upcoming classes.
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Welcome to the new Folk School Dye Garden. Natural dye comes from the leaves, flowers, or roots of plants. In this video, we will take a look at Nankeen cotton, indigo, coreopsis, yarrow, French marigolds, madder, chamomile, and purple gromwell.
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Martha Owen stands in front of our new dye garden, one of the many projects Farmer Teddy is currently working on in the Folk School Garden. Come along as Martha describes the process of using marigold flowers from the Folk School garden for dyeing in the video below:
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Catharine Ellis is an internationally acclaimed textile artist who is well-known for developing the technique of woven shibori. Specializing in both weaving and dyeing, she has also done extensive research and experimentation with natural dyes. Enjoy our interview!
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Happy Earth Day everyone! Usually during Earth Week, we celebrate Mother Earth’s amazing treasures with programming connected to nature. This year we invite you to take a walk around the Folk School Garden with Farmer Teddy.
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I was sort of joking when I decided at the end of last year that a sheep should be in every conversation. This joke coupled itself with the sad thought that there are so many things that I can’t fix, so why not talk about sheep?
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