Supply List for Cloth at Hand 

The things you will need to gather for this class fall into four categories; the natural fiber materials you will dye, the tools needed for setting up the minimalist dye kitchen, mordants, and the dyes themselves. The goal is for these things to be as easy to access as possible. The projects are designed to be done with very simple set up. See safety video for more about setting up the physical space. (Good ventilation is essential.) Additionally, basic sewing supplies for final projects.

#1 Natural Fiber Materials

When ever possible seek out 100% natural fiber goods for your dye practice. May be any plant based cellulose materials, or animal based protein material. Cloth, repurposed clothing or other cloth goods like curtains or sheets, yarn, old sweaters… Note, if the only material you can find contains some synthetic fibers, it may still be dyeable. However, keep in mind that most man made fibers do not dye with natural dyes - so for example polyester thread will not dye, or a T-Shirt containing 40% polyester may dye in a heather fashion as the polyester will not receive the plant dye. Pearl cotton, embroidery floss, crochet cord, or Sashiko threads can be dyed for stitching.

#2 Minimalist Dye Kitchen

1. Clean water 
2. Five gallon bucket
3. Dye vessel, ideally non reactive pot , like stainless steel or un-chipped enamel. Glass canning jars which can be used in a hot water bath are very useful. One or two quart size.
4. Heat Source - kitchen stove, hot plate, crock pot, oven, top wood stove, propane burner outside, rocket stove, sterno, solar oven, south facing window…  
5. PPE: gloves, masks, apron, hot pads, eye protection
6. Stir sticks or spoons
7. Buckets or dish tubs for washing, soaking and mordanting materials
8. Place to hang dry fabrics - clothes line, bamboo pole, drying rack…
9. Work surface - table, counter top, or a mat on the earth. May wish to protect surface with drop cloth, or layers of newspaper if concerned about staining - especially if using iron.
10. Notebook

Nice to haves: pH paper, a gram scale, thermometer, paint straining bags, tongs, clean up rags

#3 Mordant and Support Alchemy

1. Rock Alum, Aluminum Potassium Sulfate, or Aluminum Sulfate 
2. Soda Ash, or Baking Soda, we will learn how to turn Baking Soda into Soda Ash
3. Household distilled vinegar
4. Calcium Carbonate, AKA Chalk powder, Chalk, Tums or eggshells 
5. Wheat Bran
6. Some rusty bits, of iron or ferrous sulfate powder
7. Gentle Soap: Castile, synthapol, livestock soap like Orvus paste, dawn hand dish soap
8. Optional: Diastatic Malt powder, Borax, a non chlorine stain remover like Oxyclean.

#3 Dyes

Dyes will be found in and near your home, and will be explored in the forage module. A pocket knife or clippers will help with harvesting.

A Note on Clean Water

Getting to know your water is key. The quality of your water will impact the palette of colors you dye. Is the water from your tap hard with lots of minerals? Or really soft water? Rain water can be great to use if you can collect it where you live. What is the pH of your water? It is possible to dye with creek water, and even sea water. The key is to find out what you can about the water you have to work with. 

Beautiful colors are possible anywhere. Where I live on the Oregon Coast the water is very soft, we get LOTS of rain, the pH is slightly acidic. When I visit my sister in the Mountains of New Mexico the water has lots of minerals and is slightly alkaline, when I visit my mom in Michigan the water has lots of iron, but is pretty much neutral. 

In conclusion:

You may be able to find most of the needed items at your home, or perhaps you will go on a weekend long scavenger hunt, locating all the items at thrift shops & grocery stores - or you may end up purchasing items online from a dye house to build your studio and supplies kit. The goal is to figure out what is doable for your life at this time, and do that.

Every student will end up doing things in a slightly different way, do what feels best to you. 

Starting small and portable will allow you to be ultra flexible with your dye practice.

The second PDF document below is set up as a handy checklist for your gathering.

Good Luck!