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Art Professor Attended Eco-Print Workshop to Prepare for Cluster Course

Posted on Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Peggy Cox, Westminster College professor of art, attended an eco-print workshop June 21-24 at the Craft Alliance textile studio in St. Louis.

Internationally-known Australian costumer, artist, and author India Flint demonstrated the use of local plants and environmentally-friendly methods to create textile prints.  Flint uses found and recycled fabrics whenever possible to create art that has minimal environmental impact.

Workshop topics covered bio-regional dye sources, windfall bundle dyeing techniques, effects of ingredients on dye outcomes, a range of methods for plant dye application, and gentle meditative stitching.  Participants created dye samplers and pieced them together into a composite textile to use as a practical plant dye reference.

Cox attended the workshop in preparation for teaching a cluster course, "Pattern and Process," with Dr. Ann Throckmorton, Westminster professor of biology, this fall.  Students taking the cluster will explore the natural world from two different but similar methodologies.

Cox designed a dye garden that was planted at Westminster's Field Station by Throckmorton and students.  The garden is based on traditions from Europe, the Far East, and the Americas and includes woad and indigo, madder, butterfly weed, and other plants that will be used in the course.

Cox and Throckmorton are conducting tests with local native plants in combination with various fabrics and processes.  Students will gather plants and conduct their own experiments as part of the coursework.  Visiting textile artists are scheduled to demonstrate a variety of techniques.

"One goal of this course is for students to create fabric-based collages and wearables using the eco-dyes," Cox said.  "Students will have a better understanding of plant structures and the variety of contributions they make to our culture."

Cox, who has been with Westminster since 1985, earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Louisville and master of fine art from the University of Pennsylvania.  

Contact Cox at (724) 946-7266 or email pcox@westminster.edu for additional information.

Peggy Cox
Eco-print samples