Colleen Weste - Eco Dyeing and Silk Painting

Discover the joy of painting on silk, exploring vibrant colours and patterns. This workshop  covers graphic imagery using gutta, layering  effects and washes as in watercolour  technique. Paint a silk scarf 50 x 180 cm. 

Using plant dyes, eucalypt leaves and other plants you will create patterns on cotton and silk. Colleen will show you how to get different colours using mordants to fix the fabric. Silk scarf and cotton provided.  Suitable for all skill levels. Morning tea included.

Materials Fee is $30 for 2 silk scarves and gutta, dyes and chemicals provided.

Members - please login to the Members Area before registering to get the Members price.

 COLLEEN WESTE has had a fascination for many years for dyeing cloth to create unique wearable art and wall quilts in silk. She is skilled in handpainting silk, shibori resist dyeing, felting, layering and machine stitching.

She is author of the book Silk Painting (Penguin) and Shibori/Silk Painting for Art to Wear and Silk Art Quilts and has a Grad Dip in Textile Design from RMIT. She has attended master classes in Shibori including a study tour of Japan and the World Shibori Symposiums in France and Melbourne.

Colleen is a member of ATASDA and Aust/NZ Shibori Group.

A founding member of the Botanical Gardens Natural Dye Group, she tutored at Swinburne University Costume & Design and gave workshops at the NGV and throughout Australia & New Zealand. 

Colleen had her own retail outlet in Melbourne and now paints from her studio in the bush. She has exhibited in solo and group shows including Paris at the World Shibori Symposium and Australian/NZ Shibori shows around Aust and New Zealand.Other artist-in-residence programmes include Uluru, Secondary Colleges Melbourne.

In 2006 she opened The Gallery Mt Macedon, an arts collective of twenty six Macedon Ranges artists. Her work is featured at the gallery and open studios programmes.