Please join us for this very special workshop with visiting Diné Fiber Artist Tyrrell Tapaha. Tyrrell will be preparing three dye baths both days using vegetal dyes and dyeing skeins of Navajo-Churro sheep wool. Students will learn how local plants become pigments and see the vibrant array of colors that can be made from vegetal dyes. There will be 6-8 dye bath color variations made during this class.

In-between dye baths, students will also create simple swatches using an eco-print technique.

Tyrrell Tapaha is a Diné weaver and fiber artist from Goat Springs, AZ. Their work encompasses the intergenerational pastoral living handed down through Tapaha’s grandfather, great-grandmother, and other relatives willing to teach. Tapaha produces woven textiles and felted objects for both aesthetic and utilitarian uses. These textiles are made with raw natural fibers predominately grown on the Navajo Nation and hand-dyed with local flora from the Four Corners Region. Tapaha’s weavings are tied to a life lived and intimately interwoven with feelings, memories, and experiences. Tapaha has worked as an apprentice with Master Weaver Roy Kady. In addition to their fiber and textile work, Tapaha also works full-time as a sheep herder in the Four Corners region of the Navajo Nation.

Materials students should provide:

• Comfortable work clothes that you are okay with getting dirty, Gloves and an apron if you have them.

• Sun protection, a water bottle, and a lunch.

Materials instructor will provide:
4 oz Churro wool skeins can be purchased for dyeing from Tyrrell. Students must purchase a minimum of one skein, this can be divided into smaller skeins if you are on a budget. Tyrrell recommends and encourages the purchase of multiple churro skeins for dyeing in this class. One for each of the dye baths. So you can purchase as few as one skein and as many as eight! It is up to the student.