Amanda will demonstrate mordant printing: an ancient technique for producing patterns and designs on fabric with natural dye colors. Mordants, or metallic salts such as alum and iron, are applied to fabric using blocks or paint brushes. When the piece is introduced to the dye bath, colors from the plant dyes show up in different shades on the cloth. It’s a fun and magical process that offers endless possibilities for creative expression.

Amanda Affleck of A Skirt of Leaves Textiles is a fiber artist, natural dyer, and weaver living in midcoast Maine. She loves to teach natural dye techniques and to share the creative inspiration that comes from a close collaboration with nature to make meaningful and beautiful pieces of textile art.