In 2025 we delivered two courses at South Kensington – ‘A Heritage of Colour’ a comprehensive 5 day experience and ‘In Search of Red’ a weekend masterclass, both of which, rather gratifyingly, sold out months ahead of time.
The ‘In Search of Red’ weekend allowed dyers with experience to explore traditional and historic reds, some which are rarely used today. It was a wonderful mix of people, with some returning from our summer courses, some we knew from teaching at Ditchling and some wonderful new faces. It was also a great mix of backgrounds – professors, conservators, farmers, chemists and weavers, and folk who had come from Berlin, the US and even Glasgow!
The course consisted of practical dyeing, demonstrations, presentations and Gallery walks to see historical examples of the dyes on display in the collection. These ranged from Medieval Copes dyed with Kermes and celebrations of the Montgolfier manned Balloon flights with Madder, through to a newly commissioned piece ‘She’s Bestowed Love’, by Lin Fanglu, using Cochineal and Safflower. In class we explored various dyes, some of which have been used since the iron age, to produce reds – Kermes, Lac, Safflower, Madder, Cochineal, Buckthorn Bark and Sappanwood (Brasilwood).
2025 was the third year we have delivered ‘A Heritage of Colour’. The course followed the same basic structure as previously, giving the students a grounding in Natural Dyeing best practice, and a knowledge base which will enable them to head back home to continue to dye and experiment successfully.
This year we included a truly fascinating guided visit to the fashion and textile conservation labs to see their work. It was really interesting to see the parallels in the their chemical dye bases practice with the natural dyeing that the students were learning – there were so many similarities when you are trying to create colour, and in their case, match natural colours from centuries ago.
We are also planning to run our comprehensive course again next year so if you missed this opportunity, contact the V&A Academy to register your interest and we have plans for other masterclasses next year too, so do keep an eye out!
