Textile dyeing workshop with natural materials by Roua Atelier at Changez 2024

Ins­te­ad of a new t‑shirt from the sale, the day after Black Fri­day at Blu­eCity, pimp your own old gar­ment with paint that is was­te-free, 100% natu­ral and unique. None other than fashi­on desig­ner Roua is coming to Rot­ter­dam to teach you how to colo­ur with the power of nature!

Dye­ing clot­hes is one of the most che­mi­cal and pol­lu­ting parts of the clot­hing indus­try. To give your clot­hes a nice brig­ht colo­ur, a lot of water and che­mi­cal and non-biode­gra­da­ble sub­s­tan­ces are used. This has a big envi­ron­men­tal impact. In fact, rese­ar­ch shows that abo­ut 20% of the wor­l­d’s water pol­lu­ti­on is caused by dye­ing and fini­shing texti­les. Time for change(z)!

Colo­uring with the Power of Nature

Natu­re offers us an abun­dan­ce of mate­ri­als to dye our clot­hes: from her­bs, flowers, sto­nes, leaves and roots to food scraps. For ins­tan­ce, avo­ca­do peels give a beauti­ful pink colo­ur, rose­mary resul­ts in yel­low-gre­en and rust metal in grey-pur­ple. During this wor­k­shop, Roua will show how, in an age-old natu­ral met­hod, beauti­ful dyes are made. She will ela­bo­ra­te on the use of natu­ral dyes and how we can use dif­fe­rent tec­h­niqu­es to design a unique pattern.

What to bring.

• Old, lig­ht whi­te clot­hing or fabric (note: the fabric must be natu­ral fibre, not polyester)
• Pen and paper to take notes
• A plas­tic bag to take your clot­hes home with you
• A tic­ket for this wor­k­shop also gives you access to the rest of Chan­gez’ pro­gram­me. Ple­ase bring more unworn and/​or bro­ken clot­hes for the clot­hing exc­han­ge and clot­hing repa­ir café.

Wor­k­shop details:

• Dura­ti­on: 2 hours from 14:00 to 16:00
• Age: 14+
• Gat­her at 13:45 at Bar Stro­om, Maasbo­ule­vard 102.

Chan­ge XL
This wor­k­shop is part of the pro­gram­me of Chan­gez, Blu­eCity’s anti-Black Fri­day event. On Satur­day 30 Novem­ber, the day after Black Fri­day, Blu­eCity will tran­sform the old Tro­pi­ca­na into a gre­en depart­ment sto­re with Rot­ter­dam’s big­gest clot­hing fair, a texti­le repa­ir café, a sus­ta­ina­ble mar­ket and wor­k­shops whe­re we work with natu­re ins­te­ad of aga­inst it. This is how we make a fist aga­inst the pol­lu­ting shop­ping fren­zy of this time of year.