Community

Events & Workshops

Home

Learning Program Index

Meet the instructors

Search

Centre for Rare Arts and Forgotten Trades acknowledges the Wadawurrung people as the Traditional custodians of the land on which we operate. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present, and to all of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who live and work on Wadawurrung Country. We acknowledge their unceded sovereignty over Wadawurrung Country, and the ongoing hardship and trauma as a result of colonisation. The history and continuous culture of the Wadawurrung people is an important part of our shared story.

Australian Flags

We’re open during workshop hours to participants only.

Sign up to our mailing list to be the first to receive the latest news.

Rare Trades Centre05 11 22 23

Sign up to our mailing list to be the first to receive latest news.

Email Address

Your Name

Postcode

Phone (optional)

Which workshops are you interested in?

Two Rare Trades Centre artisans are breaking new ground with native Australian plant dyes - collaborating to deepen their research, expand their individual fibre practices, and take their work onto the international stage in an upcoming exhibition in Japan.Tammy Gilson, a proud Wadawurrung woman and acclaimed traditional weaver, is one of the Centre’s founding workshop artisans. Alongside her is Heather Thomas, a natural dye specialist who has been teaching at the Rare Trades Centre for the past three years.

During this time, Heather has been researching the goldfields-era dye practices of local entrepreneur Eady Hart through the <a href="https://www.sovereignhill.com.au/experiences/australian-centre-for-gold-rush-collections/">Australian Centre for Gold Rush Collections</a> - building on more than a decade of experience in natural dyeing and her 2020 Churchill Fellowship.While extensive records of Eady’s life and business in Ballarat remain, one key element is missing: the recipes she used to transform native plants into the rich spectrum of colours seen in her work.

Eady Hart Notebook Dye Samples

At the same time, Tammy has continued to grow as a Wadawurrung cultural leader—both through her artistic practice and her work as a Cultural Fire practitioner. Deeply connected to Country, Tammy draws on the textures, colours, smells and sounds of the landscape, weaving these influences into both traditional forms - adornments, artefacts, and weaving - and increasingly contemporary expressions.

Tammy Gilson 2

The two artists met in 2024 while working with the Australian Tapestry Workshop - Heather as a dyer, and Tammy as part of the ATW Artist Residency Program.A shared interest in landscape-led practice, and Heather’s pursuit of Edie Hart’s lost dye knowledge, sparked a collaboration. Together, they began creating naturally dyed fibres using plants sourced from the Country Tammy works with.

This year, Tammy and Heather will be among ten Australian artists featured in Ai No Nagare – The Flow of Indigo at the Aizumicho Historical Museum in Tokushima, Japan. Their work explores the potential of Indigofera australis, an Australian native indigo, to produce the deep blue tones synonymous with traditional indigo dyeing.

Heather Thomas Profile Image 7

The Flow of Indigo positions indigo as a thread between cultures and geographies - linking Australia’s evolving textile practices and plant knowledge with Japan’s enduring relationship to indigo.It’s a conversation across land, ecology, and identity - one that Tammy and Heather are helping to shape in distinctly Australian hues.

True Blue Rare Trades

You might also be interested in

The Rare Trades Centre Inaugural Artisan Residency

Gutta Percha: The Dark Beauty

Leadlight Restoration Repairing a Life

Good Shoes Can Take You to Good Places