We were delighted to take part in this pioneering conference sponsored by the Royal Society of Chemistry and organised by Jenny Oliver of Kentish Dyes and hosted in in Virbela, a virtual conference environment.

The word Interface in the title is apt. It brought together people from craft dyeing and applied textile science. Very stimulating. We gave a short talk and a poster explaining our investigations into dyeing weld on wool.

Natures Rainbow kiosk at Biodyes Interface Conference

You can access all of the presentations and get a feel for the kiosks in youtube here

A highlight for us was learning about Biocolour which is a multidisciplinary and international applied research project from Finland. If natural dyes are to become mainstream it will be because of projects like this one. Find out more by watching the presentation by Riikka Raisanen from the University of Helsinki.

Other speakers included the Mulberry Dyer (Debbie Bamford), Mamies Schoolhouse (Mel Sweetnam), The Cosmic Egg (Mar’yana Svarnyk) and Dorset Wool (Jo Nash).

The virtual conference format, while unfamiliar to many of us, was a great way of allowing easy access to a truly global event. I enjoyed chatting to dyers from India, Australia and The Philippines as well as the Americas and Europe.

Big thanks to Jenny Oliver for organising it.