Color me in, unwasted

This workshop aims to explore the relationship between food ‘waste’ and sustainability through natural dyeing and slow textile practices. Food waste is one of the largest contributors to climate change and the greenhouse effect. Yet many vegetable and fruit scraps give natural fibers beautiful colors. During this three-hour workshop participants will learn how to prepare a dye bath by extracting colors from selected food stuff such as avocado skins and stones, pomegranate rinds, and mint leaves. They will sample the colors obtained using small swatches of fabric, and dye an eco-friendly cotton tote bag in the natural color of their choice. While the bag is simmering in the dye bath, participants will start making their Pojagi square. Pojagi is an ancient form of Korean patchwork where women took old clothes and repurposed them by hand stitching fabric scraps into squares that they used to wrap or carry things.