Ercil Howard-Wroth is our 2019 Featured Teacher!

a photo of Ercil Howard Wroth, a white woman with dark blonde hair. One of her hands is dyed blue from indigo.

Ercil has been teaching with Griffin Dyeworks since forever, so I am so happy to be able to recognize her nearly two decades of support with just a little bit of publicity!

Ercil has been creatively engaged since she was little and learned to count using her mother’s tubes of oil paint.   She has been actively involved in the fiber world starting over twenty five years ago when a good friend stuck a spindle in her hands and off she went.

She loves textile history, natural dyeing, spinning, needlefelting, and weaving. Ercil has taught for guilds nationally, and for Griffin Dyeworks and many schools, and organizations all over Southern California.  She is on the board for Andean Textile Arts, a non-profit providing grants and support to the Center for Traditional Textiles of Cusco and ten Andean communities. 

Ercil also teaches 5 weekly fiber arts classes in the homeschool co-op community covering a little bit of all of the fiber arts.  She has two grown children, a dog, a lizard (see grown daughter), and currently around 200 silkworms.

Classes for the retreat:

Resistance Isn’t Futile!  Empower yourself to resist! Sew, fold, band, & clamp!!! Create resist areas using such art forms as shibori and bandhani as a source of inspiration.  Allow the dye to establish pattern and design according to your idea and chosen resist technique.  This class period will be devoted to preparing your textile for dyeing.  Attend the indigo or open dye classes to dye your pieces.   Many resist supplies provided, but feel free to bring your own.      Because of shared dyepot space  no yardage, canvas, sweatshirts or blue jeans please .  No experience necessary!

 Ancient Times – Hippie Vibe!   Oh yeah! It’s time to tye and dye!  But did you know that people were tye dyeing 2000 years ago?  Learn a few ancient secrets and come have some fun!  Some basic tye-dye techniques  and very basic color theory will be taught.  This is a relaxing fun class.  Great time to dye 100% cotton t-shirts, baby clothes, thrift store finds.  No experience necessary!

Reds of Many Colors: Beguiling, bewitching, seductive, causing war, and inspiring spiritual  and religious thought;  red is an ancient and revolving color that has fascinated the world for thousands of years. Hear some ancient stories and create reds of many colors in dyepots using a variety of dyes from cochineal, brazilwood, madder, and possibly others.  Each dye is different.  Learn techniques to push their color boundaries and potential. No experience necessary!  Because of shared dyepot space  no yardage, canvas, sweatshirts or blue jeans please 

Mini Craft Class:  Needle felted Name Tag:   Needle felt in two dimensions and create a cute name tag or a little pictorial scene.  This is a great skill to learn for embellishing other textile work. Lots of fun – No pressure! No experience necessary!