Natural Dyeing with Marigold Flowers

Class Info - Created by Deb McClintock for the Marigold Capital of Texas to use marigold dried flowers to create a beautiful yellow gold on silk and take it home. Beginners learned to soak and simmer the flowers and add the silk chiffon to make their fall scarf. It their introduction to natural dyeing at its most basic; flowers, water & heat. Students enjoyed an afternoon among the flower fields and created a memory of Arnosky Family Farms and the Texas Marigold Festival.

Bio Fiber by fiber, I build my textiles. Studying the historical techniques and other current cultural sources I interpret the skills passed on to me into my own fabric to represent my feelings. As a craftsman and artist I constantly reach to use the traditional technique of weaving to present a contemporary feeling. I now incorporate natural dyes into my work using the dye materials available to me in my valley.

I help people rediscover the skill of textile weaving, appreciate the textiles in our surrounding museums and understand the link between our present and our past in the world of textile production. I am an independent scholar; my current specialty focus is the study of Lao weaving pattern storage technology and how this technique may be applied to my textiles. I am currently expanding my study to Northwest Vietnam, Cambodia and Burma in light of their geographic relationship to Laos.