Inspired by the quiet, peaceful beauty of Madeline Island and the quiet, peaceful process of Japanese boro (mending), this workshop combines botanical printing and boro stitching. We’ll spend three days immersed in printing many of the beautiful plants on the MISA campus onto natural fabrics; then we’ll thoughtfully and meditatively hand stitch some of our printed fabrics together using Japanese boro mending and piecing techniques. Students can work to create an art quilt, a piece of wearable art, or another form of fiber art of their choosing.

Dyeing with plant pigments has been practiced for as long as humans have made cloth and wished to beautify it. Printing with plants has been practiced for generations through such traditions as Easter egg adornment and in the past few decades as a way to adorn fabrics.

During this five-day workshop students learn about the history of dyeing and printing with plants; how to prepare fabric for dyeing and printing; ways to secure and alter botanical dye color on cloth; and many ways to get patterns and images on fabric with plants.

During the first three days we will use a variety of local plant material as well as other botanical dyes to create color and patterns on our fabrics. We will focus on dyeing solid and mottled colors with botanical pigments; printing plant material onto fabrics; printing and dyeing together; and using some shibori techniques in conjunction with botanical printing and dyeing.

During the fourth and fifth days students will explore hand stitching techniques used in the Japanese boro mending tradition to layer, piece, and combine their botanically-printed fabrics to begin making a quilt, wearable, or other piece of fiber art.