Dye Garden Research Assistant

The Dye Garden Research Assistant will work closely with the Dye Garden Project Manager and Student Craft staff on maintaining the natural dye garden and conducting independent research related to natural dyes. It is not required that candidates have prior experience with natural dyes and the research conducted can be tailored to fit any course of study. Successful candidates will be comfortable working independently on tasks related to caring for the dye garden as well as supporting the research of the Dye Garden Manager and conducting their own research after adequate instruction.

The Dye Garden Research Assistant, with professional assistance from the Horticulture Farm and Student Craft staff, will support the Dye Garden Manager in facilitating the following:

1.      Maintain the field plot at the horticultural farm after planting. This will include weeding, watering, and identifying plants with possible problems like disease or bug infestation.

2.      Harvest and dry plants from the farm. This will include picking flowers as they bloom and bringing them back to the studio to be dried and properly stored. We will also do 2-3 annual harvest days of indigo leaves and one harvest of madder root.

3.      Learn the chemical process of applying natural dyes to cloth in a sustainable and effective way. We will cover the basics of using natural dyes and the successful candidate will build on that knowledge to create their own samples and conduct their own independent experiments.

4.      Conduct independent research for a craft project, production design, sample book, etc. related to natural dyes. The successful candidate will plan for the project at the start of the internship.