Organiser: Laura Pottinger (laura.pottinger@manchester.ac.uk)

Interest in natural dyeing is growing, and it has been suggested by practitioners that this craft forms holds potential to foster new ‘intimacies’ (Myers 2017) with living materials - particularly plants, but also fungi, food waste, soils, microorganism - and in turn to highlight the biodiversity of local places and polluting risks of conventional fabric production. This interactive, creative workshop introduces my research on the potentials and challenges of slow textile dyeing, and shares some of the techniques and fabric pieces I have developed with textile practitioners over the last 3 years. Participants will be invited to create a small textile piece, using botanical dyeing techniques and working with gathered plants and other materials. The workshop asks participants to consider: What does it means to make things, slowly, with plants? What novel forms of attention to plants might be generated in working through this craft form? What are the potentials of multi-sensory methods for facilitating interdisciplinary, socio-environmental research?

(Please note: Events in this series are open to University of Manchester staff and PGRs only)