Dyeing Textiles with Cochineal

Reece Brown
Spring 2023
HIST GU4962: Making and Knowing in Early Modern Europe: Hands-On History

My project takes the form of a workshop that teaches the process of dyeing to a group of 10 high school students. This endeavor promotes hands-on artisanal production that connects materials to their effects, integrating the different stages in the process into the different forms that the materials assume.

This workshop explores cochineal from three different disciplines: biology, chemistry, and history. We will begin by discussing its life cycle and habitat, then pivot to focus on the particular compound for which it is known, i.e., carminic acid. The flow of this lesson follows the transformation of materials during the process of dyeing, turning cochineal from a resource to a material to a product. Every step in the “recipe” will be contextualized briefly prior to the hands-on endeavor, then more fully explored in a conversation as we wait for the materials to heat to the proper temperature. This outline lets the process and material reality come first, then provides more abstract information once students have oriented themselves in the world around them. It also provides productive instruction time during periods of stasis integrated throughout the process of dyeing.

Images appear throughout this lesson plan. These will be printed out in a full size as visual teaching aids. Similarly, some longer quotes appear, especially during the history section. These are not necessarily to be read in full to the classroom, but rather summarized in such a way that they are made accessible to high school aged audiences in an attempt to introduce them to scholarly analysis of global commodities and their exchanges.

In August 2023, I led the workshop in a high school environmental science class. We tie-dyed cotton bandanas, which led to a fun array of patterns. Students asked a lot of questions about the mordant process, and liked talking about this project from a sustainability perspective.

Teaching Materials