Next step
Eight benches, one dye pot, and a full day of knotting in the Woodstock studio. You leave with a finished wall piece and the dye notes to repeat the colour at home. If you run a guesthouse, restaurant or styling studio, the same bench time is a good way to test how plant-dyed cord behaves before committing to a larger commission.
Bring nothing but an apron. Hemp, linen and cotton cord, madder, indigo and onion-skin baths are all on the table.
Most of our work leaves the studio through a commission or a Saturday bench. These are notes from the people on the other end of that handover.
"We hung the indigo panel in the breakfast room and guests keep touching it. Three dips gave it a depth that flat dye never reaches. The studio sent dye notes with the piece, which we now use for our seasonal linen swaps."
"Twelve madder cushion covers, all from one bath, each a slightly different red. They have been through the commercial laundry twice a week for a year and the colour has only deepened. That is exactly what we wanted."
"I booked a Saturday bench knowing nothing about knotting. By the end I had a plant hanger and a rough idea of how a dye bath actually behaves. Eight people is the right number, you get real attention."
"The onion skin batch came out warmer than expected and they leaned into it instead of forcing the original brief. The amber plant holders shot beautifully against lime-washed walls. Nothing was wasted."
Most people who walk into the Woodstock studio have already tried the alternatives: imported macrame from a catalogue, machine-dyed cord that fades unevenly, or a workshop where you watch instead of knot. The difference here is smaller and more specific than a promise. It is the dye pot, the cord in your hands, and the fact that the person teaching you mixed the same bath last Tuesday.
Every batch of onion skin, madder root and indigo gets logged with weight, temperature and dip time. When a guesthouse asks for the same blue eighteen months later, we can get close, and we tell you honestly when the plant material will not allow an exact match.
Saturday sessions cap at eight people because dye baths and knotting both need hands-on correction. You leave with a finished hanging or plant holder, and with the muscle memory to start the next one at home without guessing the tension.
Restaurants, guesthouses and stylists get a clear figure based on panel size, cord type and dye complexity, plus a realistic timeline. Offcuts from those jobs become the small plant holders sold at the studio door, so nothing from a large commission ends up in a bin.