” Art experiences play a vital role in the development of a child, with artistic thinking providing a particular way of conceiving reality, and therefore, similar to how children construct knowledge in play, their artistic learning and activities need to make sense to them, embedded in their own experiences (Vecchi, 2010; May, 2013; Barton, 2015). Arts education should encourage participation through culturally appropriate opportunities, further increasing holistic development and artistic learning.”

Kids absolutely love working with nature, and opening them up to the possibility of extracting colour onto fabric for a natural tie dye technique is the ultimate.

I have a 4 year old daughter who inspired me to make these at home kits. As usually where most great ideas come from ! Those brilliant “little” minds. She always wanted to join in and help “mummy” when I was mixing big, simmering, HOT pots of plant matter. Well of course that wasn’t suitable for obvious scolding reasons. But my mind came to the bundle dyeing technique that I learnt during my natural dyeing work placement when I studied Fashion Design.

I did all the prep work of scouring – cleaning it – and then mordanting it with Potassium aluminium sulphate – a natural forming chemical compound which gives a better bond of colour to fibre. And which is safe to work with.

This way she had a ready to dye fabric piece that she could go into the garden, pick flowers and bring them back to my work space and work along aside me !
Safe to say she now insists she comes with me when I run kids workshops & she is usually running it along side me and helping all the other little hands learn the process!

And hence , my natural tie dye kits where created. Not only for kids but adults too, colour enthusiasts, artists, or someone wanting to learn how to work with nature in a new, exciting way.

With Christmas around the corner , these kits are also a beautiful gift for a special someone.

xx Cheri.