On 20 March, we were delighted to host on site Andrew Filarowski, the Technical Director of The Society of Dyers and Colourists, a professional body whose essential mission is to educate the world in the science of colour (Society of Dyers and Colourists - SDC). Andrew is also a member of the Worshipful Company of Dyers, with whom the school has enjoyed long and close association.

As part of his morning on site, Andrew delivered a special session on textiles and dyes to a group of 14 budding Upper Four chemists in conjunction with Mrs Pywell, our Head of Chemistry.

As a professional dyer, we heard from Andrew about the different types of textile fibres and how they are coloured. Strikingly coloured clothing was initially only available for the rich due to the expense of creating natural dyes. Norwich was once world-famous for its textile industry, generating much of its medieval wealth from this trade. Of course, the majority of textiles nowadays are synthetically dyed, following technological innovation from the 1860s onwards, to bring down cost and to make colour more stable and uniform. With around 80 billion items of clothing generated worldwide every year, this is a huge and important industry that touches the lives of all of us.

Having explored the art and chemistry of dyeing, pupils then enjoyed experimenting with a multifibre strip comprising samples of acetate, cotton, nylon, polyester, acrylic and wool and seeing how the strip reacted in a mixture of red, yellow and blue dyes. The resultant multicoloured dyed strip showed how the chemical properties of each textile reacted differently, resulting in dyed material of different colours.

Pupils were invited by Andrew to participate in a competition to dye cotton t-shirts over the Easter holidays using natural dyes and we can’t wait to see the results.

Earlier in the day, Andrew had paid a visit to see Miss Rodgers in the textiles workshop in the Carter Centre for Art and Design on site, to see the colourful textile design work carried out by pupils in a wide variety of materials and styles.

A huge thank you to Andrew Filarowski for his interesting insights into the industry and the chemistry of textile colouration, as well as for broadening and deepening Norwich School’s long-standing associations with the Worshipful Company of Dyers.