đź”´ Red Wool In The Pot
Eastern Woodlands Honor Blanket
Eastern Woodlands Honor Blanket
Online Live Zoom Workshop
Date:
Time: 8:00 AM – 3:30 PM (with a 30-minute lunch break)
Platform: Zoom (link provided upon registration)
Instructor: Carola Jones, Teaching Artist
Workshop Description:
Red Wool In A Pot is a full-day, immersive online workshop that invites participants to engage in the sacred and healing practice of dyeing wool cloth with madder root—a deep, earthy red plant dye historically revered across many cultures. In this session, we center Southeastern Woodlands Indigenous traditions and honor the lives of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (#MMIW) through the creation of red-dyed wool for use in a commemorative blanket or cloth.
Guided by Indigenous ways of knowing, participants will learn how to work with madder as land medicine, respecting the plant, understanding its growing cycle, and unlocking its powerful red hues through mindful preparation and dyeing. This workshop is hands-on and ceremonial, designed not only to teach technique but also to offer a space for reflection, remembrance, and reconnection to ancestral textile practices.
We will explore how red has long been a color of protection, visibility, and spiritual power, and how the act of creating with it becomes an offering, a prayer, and a statement of survival. The dyed cloth will serve as a foundation for participants to begin or contribute to an Indigenous Southeastern Woodlands wool honor blanket, honoring traditions of community, storytelling, and protection through textile art.
History and cultural significance of madder root in Indigenous and global traditions
How to prepare wool cloth for dyeing (scouring and mordanting)
Step-by-step madder dye extraction and dye bath techniques
Modifying and deepening madder reds using pH and mineral shifts
Ethical sourcing of madder root dye
Honoring #MMIW through color, cloth, and community remembrance
Ideas for incorporating dyed wool into a Southeastern Woodlands blanket design
This gathering is open to Indigenous and non-Indigenous participants committed to honoring Indigenous lifeways, reconnecting with ancestral textile practices, and holding space for the healing and justice of #MMIW. No previous dyeing experience is necessary, just an open heart and a willingness to learn with respect.
Wool cloth (instructions on how to prepare for dyeing provided in advance, and demonstrated live)
Sources to purchase wool will be provided upon registration
Alum mordantÂ
Madder root (whole, chopped, or powder)
Tums Antacid
Stainless steel or non-reactive dye pot
Stirring tool, heat source, and access to water
Optional: pH modifiers (e.g., vinegar, baking soda, iron water)
Participants may choose to watch and learn or dye along from home.
8:00 – 8:30 AM | Opening Circle & Land Acknowledgment
8:30 – 9:30 AM | Introduction to Madder and Red as Sacred Color
9:30 – 11:00 AM | Scouring, Mordanting & Preparing Wool
11:00 – 12:30 PM | Extracting Madder & Creating the Dye Bath
12:30 – 1:00 PM | Lunch Break (30 minutes)
1:00 – 2:30 PM | Dyeing Wool: Red in the Pot + Modifications
2:30 – 3:15 PM | Sharing, Reflections & Uses in Southeastern Blanket Making
3:15 – 3:30 PM | Closing Circle & Song for MMIW
Teaching at Indigenous Fashion Arts, Toronto 2024
Registrations Opens Sunday, July 20, 2025
Only ten (10) spaces are available to maintain an intimate learning experience.
This workshop employs a sliding-scale pricing model. You are invited to select the tier that most honestly reflects your current financial situation. Those who pay at the Supporter or Full Tuition level help subsidize access for others. This is a trust-based model rooted in community care, not charity.
If even the lowest rate is out of reach, don't hesitate to get in touch with me about possible scholarship opportunities.