This workshop will begin by using the contact method of using natural plant material to pattern paper appropriate for book binding. Students will use contact-printed papers dyed with real leaves to create a custom portfolio to hold precious papers. We will print a variety of papers to include in the portfolio. Students are welcome to bring their own papers to use for accents. No previous bookbinding experience is required.

Learn to make a personal natural indigo vat without worrying about toxicity or cost of heavy chemicals.  These vats use a natural chemical reduction process to produce a quick, reliable, long-lasting indigo blue.  I’ll provide a brief overview of indigo’s historical highlights and chemical quirks, and guide you through making a natural reduction vat.  We’ll explore simple resist techniques to produce patterns on silk and cellulose fabrics and then introduce the added beauty of rust prints in combination with the indigo.  Finally, we’ll cover care and maintenance of the vat and give you the option of taking one home.

These hand quilting styles both originate in India but vary in style and technique. Let’s explore the similarities and differences by making small samplers of each.

Natural dyes can provide brilliant and fast color to rival their modern-day competitors, and under much safer conditions for both the dyer and the earth. Learn how to achieve a range of colors with a variety of fabrics, mordant combinations, and overdyeing. Preserve the experience with a hand-stitched sampler!

Don’t believe the hype! Natural dyes can provide brilliant and fast color to rival their modern-day competitors, and under much safer conditions for both the dyer and the earth. I’ll teach you how to use natural dyes to achieve a range of colors from your home dye pot. I’ll cover a bit of history and explain how natural dyes differ from their synthetic counterparts. We’ll talk about common mistakes beginning dyers encounter, and learn how to control your results. We’ll use different mordants for light and color-fastness, and explore different natural fibers to obtain maximum color variations from a single dye plant. Finally, we’ll experiment with overdyeing and variegated dyeing to give you plenty of avenues for later exploration at home.

This is a fabulous show/sale collaboration between Portland-area craft guilds including woodworkers, jewelers, glass artists, beadworkers, handweavers, and ceramicists, all in the same place at the same time!

The Gathering of the Guilds features hundreds of artists, live demonstrations and hands-on activities, and door prize drawings. Best of all, it’s free to attend!

Judilee will be participating as a part of Sylvan Dyers Circle with the Portland Handweavers Guild.

Slow stitching, the meditative art of hand sewing, is a chance to relax and enjoy the rhythmic dance of needle and thread as we construct a charming needle keeper using new and vintage fabrics, basic stitching, and simple shapes. We’ll enjoy a cup of tea or coffee, a treat or two, and the company of like-minded souls.

Let’s begin this new series with a look at beetles and dragonflies. Craft a small applique for a bag or garment patch. We’ll explore methods of transferring the design, suitable methods of applique, and embroidered embellishment.

These hand quilting styles both originate in India but vary in style and technique. Let’s explore the similarities and differences by making small samplers of each.

All of these hand stitching styles are similar but slightly different in origin and technique. Let’s explore the similarities and differences by making small samplers of each.

Join Judilee and the Sylvan Dyers Circle at the annual “Handwovens for the Holidays” Portland Handweavers Guild Fall Show & Sale! Featuring handcrafted work by regional artists - including wearables, accessories, home goods, rugs, baskets, handspun and hand-dyed yarns.

This interdisciplinary workshop combines techniques for indigo dyeing, surface design, and bookbinding to create one-of-a-kind books. You’ll start by brewing a simple and safe indigo vat appropriate for home use, then use traditional Japanese dyeing techniques including stitch (nui-shibori) and clamp resist (itajime-shibori), as well as techniques for printing and painting using indigo pigment, to create layered surface design on paper and cloth. You’ll learn how to turn your custom cloth into bookcloth, and then learn the basics of bookmaking including constructing signatures, endpapers, and covers, as well as two simple yet highly customizable methods for bookbinding: Japanese stab-binding and Secret Belgian binding.

This workshop will begin by using the contact method of using natural plant material to pattern paper appropriate for book binding. Students will use contact-printed papers dyed with real leaves along with a “Secret Belgian” binding technique to construct a book with customized decorative stitching along the spine. Students will print a variety of papers to include in their sample book, and are welcome to bring their own precious papers to use for accents. No previous bookbinding experience is required.

Discover the beautiful relationship between indigo dye and rust prints. We’ll learn an easy method for activating the rust (oxidizing) action on cloth and a variety of methods of adding indigo patterning for a more complex design. This method is suitable for all cellulose and silk fabrics. A variety of metal shapes will be available to borrow and we’ll include a field trip to a nearby scrapyard as an option for personal pieces.

In this workshop we’ll go from blank canvas to finished garment, exploring various techniques for surface design along the way! We’ll start by dyeing cotton fabric using natural plant dyes, then cut stencils or stamps to print unique designs with plant and earth pigments. Finally, we’ll use our custom cloth to sew versatile and stylish jackets based on a Japanese happi, perfect for light cover indoors or as a jacket in warmer weather.