Visit STORE STORE’s series of public short drop-in natural dyeing workshops, run by some of the most exciting artists and designers working in the UK. You will have the opportunity to learn a range of natural dyeing techniques before dyeing your very own postcard, garment or accessory to take away with you. Items to by dyed can be purchased in the STORE STORE. We will host a Cyanotype Print – Blueprint a Postcard, a Pattern and Mark Making with Natural Dye Inks an Electro Colour Workshop and more. Full program underneath.

The STORE STORE workshops during the LONDON CRAFT WEEK are free and open to the general public but slots should be booked in advance to guarantee a place. The workshops will take place outside in the Yard space, Coal Drops Yard, N1C 4DQ

STORE is a London-based association of artists, architects and designers composed of three core elements: an educational programme of art and architecture courses, wide-ranging public events and exhibitions, and a socially engaged design practice. Since November 2018 STORE also runs the STORE STORE, a design shop in Coal Drops Yard which runs art and design workshops. Twice a week we run an After School Club for local state school students and on Saturdays STORE invites makers, artist and designers to run workshops open to the public. 

PROGRAMME [ drop in workshops ]

Thursday 9th May / 2-8pm 

• Electro Colour Workshop by Unit Lab

• Cochineal Dye Workshop by Claire Felicity Miller

Friday 10th May / 2-8pm

• Cyanotype Print – Blueprint a Postcard by Marianne Wie & Zoë Burt

• Pattern and Mark Making with Natural Dye Inks by Marianne Wie & Zoë Burt

Saturday 11th May / 1-6pm

• Electro Colour Workshop by Unit Lab

• Mark Making the Flow with Flower Ink by Helena Nora Vitola-Jones

Sunday 12th May / 1-6pm

• Cyanotype Print – Blueprint a Postcard by Marianne Wie & Zoë Burt

• Pattern and Mark Making with Natural Dye Inks by Marianne Wie & Zoë Burt

WORKSHOP DESCRIPTIONS

Electro Colour Workshop / by Unit Lab

Designed to be purely functional, electronic circuits stay hidden in a plastic shell. Fascinated by these encrypted complexities, Unit Lab worked on a technique for printing with electricity called Electro Colour. The technique uses custom circuit boards and an organic dye from red cabbage juice to print vivid patterns on textile. In this drop in workshop, you will can create your own printing pattern and use electricity to print on a tshirt or a tote bag.

Cyanotype Print – Blueprint a Postcard / by Marianne Wie and Zoë Burt

Experiment with this heritage form of photography to create beautiful images on paper without using a camera or a phone. Use a variety of design elements to make images – botanical matter or your own drawings and collage using just light and water in this simple yet effective creative print formula. Suitable for all levels.  This was one of the first forms of photography and one of the most long lasting processes

Pattern and Mark Making with Natural Dye Inks / by Marianne Wie and Zoë Burt

Create patterns and drawings on paper from natural dye inks, made from seasonally foraged flowers, leaves, roots, spices and food bio-waste such as onion skins and avacado. Experiment with designing your own brushes and mark making tools with natural and found materials including botanical matter, feathers, twigs and recycled objects. Exercise your sketching skills and make your own unique  seasonally inspired card. Suitable for all levels.

Cochineal Dye Workshop / by Claire Felicity Miller

Cochineal is derived from the female crushed cochineal insect. Cochineal has a rich and history and is still one of the most important natural dyes used over the world. It achieves a range of colours from deep crimson to scarlet, red, and pink colour hues and is one of the main red colorants for lipsticks. In this drop in workshop you will explore the beauty of cochineal as well as fabric manipulation techniques, such as shibori for a range of patterns and unique visual effects. You will leave with a fabric takeaway as well as insight into the process of dyeing with cochineal.

Mark Making the Flow with Flower Ink / by Helena Nora Vitola-Jones

Take a meditative 30 minute break for drawing your breath and your flow of feeling with ink made from flower pollen. The Flower Ink used in this workshop is a sunshine-rich golden hue with an ephemeral quality, fading to a light green mark when exposed to sunlight. It has been developed by Helena Nora Vitola-Jones, during her practice of continuous meditation and exploration of flow as a movement expression of feeling. Draw on a scroll of paper and take your creation home with you.

The free STORE workshops during the LONDON CRAFT WEEK will be run by:

Unit Lab

London design studio Unit Lab was founded by designer-maker Cindy Strobach and designer-engineer Mike Vanis with the aim of bringing science out of the lab and into everyday life. Having met at the Royal College of Art, the duo launched their studio in November 2015 with the Gravity Ruler – a desktop tool for measuring both length and weight – and have gone on to work on a number of projects that translate scientific theory into physical objects. Alongside its core projects, Unit Lab creates workshops and installations for schools, museums and cultural institutions.

Marianne Wie and Zoë Burt

Zoë Burt is an artist, designer, collaborator, educator and author. Marianne Wie is an artist, freelance photographer and feature writer specialising in culture and design for Scandinavian and British press. Together they collaborated on their book Nature Journal www.loveyoursketchbook.com and develop creative projects and experiences inspired by nature in UK, Norway and Greece involving plant colour, textiles, photography and sculpture. Individually and collectively they have their own creative studio practice and devise workshops for design meets horticulture venues connecting people with nature and their environment.

Claire Felicity Miller

Based in London Claire works as an independent textile designer and researcher. Claire is currently working on her PhD at the Royal College of Art as a Stravros Niarchos Foundation funded scholar, at the convergence of Textile Design and Material Science. Claire is interested in the intrinsic qualities of textiles and materials such as their textures, weights and finishes; their abilities to tell narratives of new material futures. She graduated with an MA in Textile Design from the Royal College of Art, London in June 2013 and graduated from Chelsea College of Art and Design in 2011 where she gained a first class honors degree.

Helena Nora Vitola-Jones

Design innovator and creator with love for humane environments and living cultures, Helena Nora Vitola-Jones started Immaterial Art Lab with her meditative mark-making practice. In the past, Immaterial Art Lab has performed at a TEDx event with a collaborative project welding together data science and meditative art. Currently, it is innovating with organic pigments and delivering immersive mark-making workshops for catching a breath and an inspiration on a busy day.