This four-day workshop will take place in the intimacy of Maestro Porfirio’s Studio. Spending time with him in his studio is an incredible opportunity to immerse yourself in his deep creative process and life as a dyer and contemporary artist. You will be using his traditional tools and techniques to create an array of shades of red, which will give you a deep understanding of the integrity of his process.
You will learn the spiritual understanding of cochineal insects and how this relates to color and ceremonies. The different shades of reds are created by learning the science and chemistry of this material, specifically understanding PH and the role of acidity in color. Maestro Porfirio will teach you how to dye and prepare other plants that are used as a base color to expand the vocabulary of color.
This workshop will take an in-depth look at preparing yarn for dying. Dyeing yarn adds an extra level of expertise to the requirements of natural dyeing, creating a product that is not only deeply and evenly dyed, but is also precisely-skeined needs both knowledge of the raw materials and skill and dexterity in the dyeing practice. Maestro Porfirio has been developing a deep relationship with this practice since he was a child. He is going to teach you how to mordant, starting from grinding the natural rock form of the mordant, and step-by-step will walk you through how to attach color to the material. He is going to dedicate time to explain the molecular structure of the material choice and how this relates to the way this material is handled. The fiber choice for this workshop is wool yarn.
This immersive master class will be finished with a special traditional meal prepared by his family, around conversation and reflection about your learnings, culture, plants as color, sacredness, diaspora, and food. Porfirio will be sharing how he is preserving his ancestral practice and his artistic journey, life in Oaxaca and California, and the influences he finds in both cultures.
This class is for all levels.
Participants:
Limited to 15 attendees, and requires a minimum number of 7 participants to ensure that the workshop goes ahead
Schedule:
Monday–Thursday, 10:00 AM–4:00 PM (with one hour break for lunch)
Cost:
$980
The workshop includes:
• Four days of intensive study with Porfirio, 5 hours per session
• Create 8 shades of colors on wool yarn
• All wool yarn
• All dyestuff
• Learn to grind on the metate (an ancestral grinding stone)
• Maestro Porfirio will present a video on the story of harvesting Cochineal insects
• He will talk and about how his work relates to the availability of materials and the cycle of nature
• Our last day will finish with a traditional meal made with family recipes. Please provide any dietary restrictions and we will do our best to accommodate your needs.