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SULAI LOPEZ CONTACT

WORKSHOPS

I teach natural dyeing and lead community indigo projects for museums, universities, schools, art centers, and community groups. People leave with dyed cloth in their hands and a new way of seeing where color comes from.

A circle of hands stained blue from indigo dyeing, held together over an indigo vat

Where Indigo Spell has been

  • Green Arrow Co-Lab, Los Angeles (2026)
  • ARTIVISM, Seattle (2026)
  • To Be Continued Festival, Wonder Valley, CA (2026)
  • Wade Elementary, Bellingham (2026)
  • Solstice Fest, Bellingham (2026)
  • Lovefest, Bellingham (2025)
  • My Friend’s Place, Los Angeles (2024)
  • Topanga Farmer’s Market, CA
  • Lookout Arts Quarry, Bellingham

Indigo Spell is a community art project, indigo dye workshop, and contemplative practice. Participants imagine a kinder, fairer, more sustainable world and write those ideas on small white flags. Each flag is dipped into an indigo vat, where the white cloth turns green and then blue, a visual symbol of transformation. The flags are then sewn together with the hundreds of others collected over the project’s three years. Imagination shapes technology, policy, and the ideas that build our society. Indigo Spell is a chance to imagine the details of a more utopian world, in the belief that imagining is the first step toward making it real.

A person writing on a small white flag at a table with markers and sage
A young woman lifting cloth out of an indigo dye pot beside a large metal pot, blue flags hanging behind her
Indigo-dyed cloth squares with handwritten wishes like Stoic, Love and Fungi for all
An indigo-dipped flag with the handwritten words To look at all beings with eyes of compassion
A group of workshop participants holding up their indigo-dyed cloths in front of a building
An indigo flag held up by a hand, written with We rise with purpose, we plant for those to come
Two indigo flags reading Embrace the dark, trust love and We get there together
Rows of Indigo Spell flags strung along a wooden fence

Three ways to bring it to your community

Pop-up

For festivals, farmers markets, schools, and community events.

People join as they pass: write a wish, dye the flag, and add it to the collection.

[3-5 hours, 20-300 people over multiple hours, requires access to water and electricity ]

Half-day workshop

For museums, art centers, schools, and community groups.

An introduction to making an indigo vat, plus the flag project. Participants make flags and dye one or two used garments or textiles, giving them new life through upcycling. For groups larger than 10, a host assistant helps.

[4 hours (plus hour prep and breakdown) 10 people max

Two-day cohort

For fellowships, universities, nonprofits, and organizations. Teenagers and adults. 10 to 20 participants (up to 30 with an assistant on Day 2).

Day 1 (3 to 4 hours) explores the expired stories in our shared world, guided by excerpts from Vanessa Machado de Oliveira’s Hospicing Modernity, along with guided visualizations and a conversation about what a more just and sustainable world could look like. We also look at past community activist art projects and the power of imagination.

Day 2 (4 to 6 hours, outdoors) is the science and practice of indigo dyeing: the folklore of the pigment, its history in relation to social justice, an organic indigo vat, and simple shibori and fold-resist techniques. Each participant writes two flags, one for the collective and one for personal transformation, and then dyes them. Participants then experiment on a textile they brought from home, and everyone takes home a zine with everything covered.

What participants learn (two-day)

  • Prepare and care for an indigo vat
  • Fold, bind, and dip fabric to create patterns
  • Understand indigo’s cultural and complicated global history
  • Contribute to a collective artwork
  • Expand conversations about the potential for change

Natural dye workshops with focus on local color

When possible, my workshops focus on locally grown and sustainably foraged color. These courses typically run late summer through fall and participants experiment with a range of local color on a variety of mordanted natural fibers. I also offer more technical based courses focused on mordants and modifyers, showcasing the broad color palette range available through modifyers, various fibers, and overdyeing. My mission as an educator is to facilitate creative community experiences which focus on repair, upcycling, and visioning a just and sustainable world.

Orange cosmos and purple flowers gathered for natural dyeing
A workshop participant holding up a yellow cloth printed with flowers, holding a bunch of fresh blooms
Strips of red bark drying on a screen for dyeing
Purple tie-dyed cloths hanging on a line among trees
A metal tub of green walnut hulls soaking in dark dye water
A man holding up a patchwork of plant-dyed squares in gold, rust and green
A hand holding a cluster of dark aronia berries
A person in a sun hat holding up indigo shibori-dyed pants on a garden path
Workshop participants lifting cloth from an indigo vat in a backyard
A group of women standing on a riverbank with dye pots, holding up their dyed cloths

Sulai Lopez is a natural dyer, textile and installation artist, and costume designer. She teaches regularly at the La Conner Museum for Quilting and Fiber Arts and has led programs for ARTIVISM (Seattle), Green Arrow Co-Lab (Los Angeles), schools, and community organizations. She once led a two-day workshop in the Amazon at the request of master Huni Kuin artisans, on making their naturally dyed cotton colorfast using jungle foraged materials.

Reach out if you’d be interested in having Sulai teach at your company, collective, or institution.