Arimatsu unchi-zome:
shibori dyed with cow dung

“Conversations on Colour” is a series running each spring and autumn, taking colour drawn from nature as a way into creative work with the more-than-human. The autumn session comes in two parts: a talk, then a dyeing workshop.

We begin with a cattle farmer who keeps his herd out at pasture all year round, and who has spent years learning about the forest from the animals and other creatures living in it. He speaks about the work at Happy Mountain, his farm. The dyeing workshop that follows is led by a dyer from Auntie Maki, who has worked with plant dyes — and with dung dyes — through a life in the mountain villages.

The cattle eat the same forest plants that plant-dyers gather. So how is dyeing with their dung different from dyeing with plants? Where does something stop being repellent and start being beautiful? Plant, animal, human — who, in the end, is the author of the thing you take home?

Through the talk and the dyeing, this is a day about what it means to make something together, beyond the technique itself. Whoever made the piece now in front of you, you will look again at how you stand in relation to the natural world — alongside the other participants and the two people leading the day.