This will be an unforgettable weekend workshop featuring 11 hours of hands-on instruction in the traditional use of cochineal insect dye. Learn directly from the renowned Zapotec-American multidisciplinary textile artist Porfirio Gutiérrez as you practice techniques for mordanting wool, grinding cochineal, preparing the dye vat, and dying a wool scarf to take home.
One of the oldest pigments used in Mexico, cochineal’s red color was symbolically associated with the gods, sun, blood, and rituals. Used as medicine, as well as to decorate buildings, murals, codices, and the human body, it was culturally, symbolically, and economically valuable. For Gutiérrez, cochineal and its color are still sacred and precious. A direct descendant of the civilization that helped domesticate and develop this globally influential pigment, he teaches the deeper cultural context beyond the surface of cochineal’s vivid red.