There are a lot of steps in the natural dye process that take a long time: days or weeks or months of soaking, resting, fermenting, or overdyeing. Often, these steps cannot be hurried or skipped without affecting the final result. This has a way of teaching patience, because it’s necessary. There’s a focus on paying attention over days instead of just over minutes. And there’s less instant gratification, because it’s not always immediately clear if something worked the way you hoped.
This can be tricky to navigate for students who are used to quicker feedback, but it’s also a chance to begin shifting a mindset about learning and expectation. Sometimes the bath doesn’t start changing color until you’ve been watching it for a few hours. Sometimes the wool doesn’t darken until it has been out of the bath for a few days. It takes some faith to let things be, but in the end it teaches a valuable lesson about timing and trust. For one thing, it teaches students that sometimes things do take time, and that just because you can’t see the difference you’re making right now doesn’t mean it’s not happening.
But it also offers space for contemplation that quicker processes do not. While students wait for things to steep or rest or ferment, there’s time to think about what they just did, and what they’re planning next. This is a step that is easy to skip when processes are quicker, but it’s a good opportunity for students to really think about what they’ve done and what they still need to do. It encourages mindfulness and consideration, and over time it helps build a stronger relationship between the student and the work.
There’s also value in how time teaches students to listen to the materials, and respect them. Overdyeing may require multiple trips into and out of a bath, but how many and for how long depends on the strength of the colors and how they’re mixing. There’s not really a one-size-fits-all recipe for how often and for how long to overdye, so it’s an exercise in patience and paying attention. Plants have to steep for the right amount of time, and wool needs to cool before being washed. A mordant can only sit for so long, and fermentation can take anywhere from a few days to a month or more. The materials have their own timeline, and the students have to work with them. This is a valuable way to build a respectful relationship between the student and the materials, because it reminds them that they’re not fully in charge.
A big part of the learning process in natural dyeing is learning to let go and follow the time. One of the outcomes of working like this is a cultivation of patience and the ability to slow down and really observe the materials and the process. This translates out of the classroom, too. When you learn to slow down and pay attention and not get too caught up in worry about whether the dye worked, it changes your way of moving through the world.