The topic for the European Textile Forum 2023 is Dimensions of Dyeing - Colours, Mordants, Processes.
Colouring textiles has been done almost as long as textiles have been made. The possibilities are almost endless, from choosing and combining natural colours of different plant and animal fibres to dyeing in the fibre, in the yarn or in the cloth. Painting and gilding are additional methods to introduce colours into textiles.
There is fascinating chemistry behind dyeing - and there is also the fascination of the hands-on approach and the fact that fluctuations in the plant or animal dyestuffs can be so large that something absolutely unexpected comes out of the dye pot. This, of course, is on top of the many possibilities for different colours that almost every single dyestuff will offer.
In this year's Forum, we would like to explore the many dimensions of dyeing, from chemistry and analyses of fabrics to the investigation of production processes, from preparing the fibres to recycling coloured materials to recover pigments for other uses. Mordant dyes, vat dyes, and the surface application of colours to different kinds of fabrics or the properties of different dyestuffs themselves, we invite you to explore this vast topic together.
The Forum will again take place in the Laboratory for Experimental Archaeology in Mayen, Germany. This place has both a small laboratory, offering necessary equipment for archaeological experiments, as well as workrooms and outdoor space for larger-scale dyeing, the latter also making dyeing over the open fire a possibility.
The conference will take place from November 6 to November 12. To learn more about the conference and the focus topic, please have a look at our Call for Papers and the general information on this page. To register, please use the Registration Form.