Introduction to Fabric Dyeing
January 21 – February 11, 2025 | 1:30–3:30 p.m.
Location: Blue Workshop, Greene Family Education Center
Registration Required
Not a member? Join today!
The registration fee includes all materials, weekly access to world-class art on view in the museum’s galleries and special exhibitions, hours of expert instruction, and additional access to a Friday afternoon Open Studio during the run of the class.
The registration fee includes all materials, weekly access to world-class art on view in the museum’s galleries and special exhibitions, hours of expert instruction, and additional access to a Friday afternoon Open Studio during the run of the class.
Experiment with color, pattern, design, and composition while exploring a variety of fabric dyeing techniques. Practice tie-dyeing and layer dyeing and carve your own stamps to create bold new patterns that add character and depth to your textiles. Using the ice-dyeing technique, achieve watercolor-like effects as the dye drips and spreads throughout the fabric, and then create a design with needle and thread while learning the tritik resist-dyeing method.
Week 1: Begin with an introduction to the class and an outline of the dyeing methods that will be explored. Then experiment with faux tie-dyeing.
Week 2: Carve your own stamps and use texture plates to add depth and variety to your designs.
Week 3: Create new effects within textiles through layer dyeing and ice dyeing.
Week 4: Use the tritik method to create patterns with needle and thread. We will conclude our time together with a discussion about our work and a reflection on the different techniques we’ve learned.
About Studio Classes
Studio Classes enable you to expand your art-making skills through guided, step-by-step instruction with expert teaching artists. Over multiple weeks, you will learn alongside other creative adults and delve deeply into the artistic process, explore new techniques, and build your practice.
This is an introductory-level Studio Class; it is designed to accommodate all levels of skill and talent. If you have never taken a fabric dyeing class before, this is a great place to start. You will learn new skills that you can carry forward and build on in your artistic practice.
The registration fee includes all materials, weekly access to world-class art on view in the museum’s galleries and special exhibitions, hours of expert instruction, and additional access to a Friday afternoon Open Studio during the run of the class.
About Your Instructor
Marquetta Johnson is a textile artist and quilter residing in Stone Mountain, Georgia, who creates her works from her own dyed, printed, and stamped fabrics. She has over thirty years of experience as a teaching artist working in inclusive classrooms for all ages and abilities, and she is affiliated with VSA International/Kennedy Center, The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, the Decatur Education Foundation, and Utah State University’s Arts Access Program. Her artwork has been featured in multiple publications, including Quilt Magazine and MARTA’s MARTA on the Go, and is included in several private and corporate collections such as the estates of B. B. King and Faith Ringgold, the University of Maryland, Turner Broadcasting, and The Coca-Cola Company. She is the author of the how-to book Hand-Dyed Quilts (2008).
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