Fiber Art Workshops
natural dye techniques
Fall 2019
Auli's Studio
Dyes foraged from local flora in
the Hudson Valley
& Northern California
Auli foraging in our fields to collect plentiful bunches of wild goldenrod and ripened walnuts from our bountiful black walnut tree.
Goldenrod, Solidago
Black Walnuts, Juglans Nigra, prior to being husked
Merge Stone Ridge was delighted to host Auli's Studio in the English Barn. The sliding barn doors were propped wide open, extending the workshop space into the field in order to capture the beautiful fall day.
Auli taught the workshop participants how to dye a wool or silk scarf using plants and other natural dyes, many harvested near her home in Northern California, such as eucalyptus and coffee berry bush leaves and from our own fields.
Beautiful and vibrant scarves were created from the natural dyes during the workshop. The participants left the workshop with their own handmade scarf and equipped with plenty of formulas, skills and confidence to keep exploring.
Drapped skeins of wool yarn from Auli's collection of natural dyes embellished the walls of the rustic bead board room
About Auli:
I moved to Mill Valley, California in 2017 from Helsinki, Finland, where I was educated and worked as a crafts teacher and trained teachers in that field at the University of Helsinki . In Mill Valley, I founded a fiber arts studio and workshop space called Auli’s Studio where I work on my own art and teach workshops. I design and weave handmade rugs combining Finnish craftsmanship and tradition of rug weaving with contemporary California recycled cotton and linen materials. I enjoy exploring and working with natural dyes from local plants to dye wool and silk. At the moment I teach workshops on natural dyeing, up-cycling materials and creating beeswax fabrics.
I’ve worked with both children and adults teaching classes in numerous fields of textile crafts and art for 30 years. I believe, that working with natural materials is meaningful because it connects the mind and soul through our hands to the real world, to our history and the present day.
My aim is to encourage experimenting with dye materials and dyeing techniques with ease because all natural colors look gorgeous. The colors extracted from plants are both rich and subtle at the same time and the hues of new experiments amaze me every time. Working with natural materials is safe, interesting, sustainable and always rewarding.