Naturally-dyed vintage linen napkins
Back in February, we were thrilled to be invited to participate as exhibitors in the first, Natural Dyes in Northeast America symposium hosted by Ryerson University. Originally scheduled for April 2020, it was to feature scholars from York University, the Ontario College of Art and Design, and the Royal Ontario Museum. The symposium was postponed due to covid-19 but after much work on behalf of the organizers, it is now running online over the course of the next few months.
Divided into three distinct modules, Learning & Knowing, Land & People, and Pasts & Futures, our materials are currently on exhibit in the Learning & Knowing module. For this occasion, we are showcasing some work on a set of vintage table linens, including both linen and cotton fibres. Isabel was gifted several of these pieces from her mother-in-law, which (as vintage linens tend to do), had developed stains, or yellowed. We felt that they were perfect candidates for natural dyeing and thus began the basis of our exhibition ReSet: A newly dyed vintage table setting. Also on display are a few pages from our Swatch Book, where we keep a record of our samples and experiments. We hope you’ll take a look at our work, and check out the extremely talented artists we are flattered to be featured alongside.
Kathy Hattori, an internationally recognized authority on natural dyes and pigments, and founder of Botanical Colours has provided the keynote address for the first module, which you can watch here. Each module has its own keynote speaker, so there's reason to return to the site every so often as new content will be added until the symposium ends in March, 2021.
While we're sorry not to have a chance to meet colleagues in person at the symposium, we're excited to attend it virtually over the next few months and look forward to engaging with fellow dyers and artists personally, in due course.