A NOTE:

We are finishing up some details for our trip to Bali in 2019. If you would like to be the first to know please add your email address to the list below.  We'll send you information as soon as we have it, including early bird pricing and extra surprises. Don't miss out!

ABOUT THE TRIP

A very special textile focused adventure in Ubud Bali with Threads of Life. You will learn hands-on all about the world of natural dyeing using colours such as morinda red, tannins, mud and indigo as well batik printing + pressure resist. 

You will travel to nearby villages with a specialized guide who will take you to meet with and watch the phenomenal art of double ikat and songket weavers. You will also enjoy a two-part lecture series on the history of Indonesian textiles, as well as the sacred textiles of Bali.

"For four millennia the textile arts of Indonesia have articulated an intimate and harmonious relationship with the earth. Through the plant-sourced dyes and the symbolic potency of the colours created, the archipelago’s indigenous peoples have literally wrapped themselves in their stories of this relationship. After fifteen years of field research and studio practice, the Threads of Life’s dyers are offering an 8 day workshop exploring the making, meaning and application of these colours through the practices of batik, yarn and swatch dyeing, and arasi." -Threads of Life

ABOUT YOUR WORKSHOP LEADERS AND DYEING INSTRUCTORS

William Ingram is co-founder of Threads of Life, a fairtrade business based in Bali that has worked with over 1000 traditional weavers and their families in 50 communities on 12 Indonesian islands since 1997. As co-director of the Bebali Foundation since 2002 he has led the organization’s support for sustainable use of natural dyes and other non-timber forest products by these same community groups. Through his work he seeks to demonstrate how profitable businesses can have a social mission, how community businesses can be profitable, and how both can be sensitive to the values of indigenous culture. Born in the UK and trained as a mathematician, he has lived most of his life in Japan and Indonesia. He is author of “A Little Bit One O’clock: Living with a Balinese family”.

Ida Ayu Ngurah Puniari was born in Sidemen, Bali. After qualifying as a school teacher, she began working for the Siddha Mahang Foundation in 1993, researching Bali’s bebali textile traditions. Her work focused on gathering information on bebali textiles and the religious ceremonies in which they are used from several historical collections of sacred texts in lontar (palm-leaf) book form. In 1994, while continuing this research, she began teaching the bebali weaving arts at the private Siddha Mahang High School in Sidemen. This unique school has established central roles for a broad range of Balinese cultural arts, crafts and sciences in its curriculum. A year later she began to study the use of natural dyes and weaving on a continuous warp back-strap loom in the Balinese villages of Bugbug and Tenganan Pegeringsingan in Karangasem. Recognized as an authority on all aspects of the bebali textile tradition, she has made presentations and curated exhibitions across Bali, and is active on the boards of several cultural organizations around her hometown. 

Threads of Life’s staff dyers Komang Sujata, Wayan Sukadana and Made Maduarta, bring a combined 35 years of experience to the teaching of this workshop. Focusing on traditions that have degraded and are being recovered, they document local dye recipes and processes in the field, and test them in the studio before taking suggested refinements back to the communities. In the dye garden, they establish cultivation and harvesting methods to address plant resource scarcity being faced by traditional dyers. Their approach to natural dyeing seeks plant-sourced dyes by plant-sourced processes and avoids synthetic additives or mordants. 

Photos by Threads of Life