Associated Students held a natural tie-dye workshop for students to design tote bags with dye made from natural resources at the Campus Community Garden on Tuesday.
Some natural resources used were coffee, grass and purple cabbage.
Liberal studies senior Megan Yee, who led the discussion behind the event, said her inspiration was to use a cross culture event with
tie-dyeing.
“Natural tie dyes are used by the indigenous people for arts as well as ceremonial practices, and I want to bring that into [the] Western and campus space by using extractions of dyes and applying it to the textiles,” Yee said.
Campus Community Garden coordinator Matthew Spadoni, who helped coordinate the workshop, said it was fun going through with the event’s idea.
“It’s a way to introduce students to going backwards, to an older technology that we can still use and it’s more sustainable than some of the newer technologies,” Spadoni said.
Yee said she researched online to learn the extraction process of making natural dye, and she said she was challenged by how much
trial and error there was.
“It was a sensitive process because it is natural dyes and the pigments are sensitive to the sun and UV,” Yee said.
The attendance of the event, because of the rainy and cloudy weather, was low but the spirits were still high.
“It was a good turnout considering the circumstances with the weather, and I think the people who were able to make it to this event got a good opportunity to learn how to make natural dyes as well as getting to tie-dye a tote bag,” Yee said.
Spadoni said he had never done anything with natural dyes, and the event was a learning experience.
“You boil water, chop all of whatever you’re trying to get the dye out of to increase the surface area and then you cover it barely with water because you don’t want to have too much water, it’ll dilute the dye,” Spadoni said. “Then let it sit there for 20 minutes, the hot version, and then sift it out and bottle it and keep it in a dark space.”
He also said some of the natural dyes changed their original colors after boiling.
“It was really cool, there’s some really interesting things like avocado skins made pink and purple cabbage made blue,” Spadoni said. “Somehow it took a while for a dragon fruit to change color, it boiled for 20 minutes and then all of a sudden it just turned pink.”
Environmental studies sophomore Evey Hinojosa, who is part of the garden fellowship, said she was glad to participate because
she liked how everything was natural.
“You can really do it at your home and at your own disposal,” Hinojosa said. “It’s really simple to do and it’s probably less costly if you go out.”
