My role as a facilitator is to gently invite participants to touch, play, imagine, question, and learn through making.
We start with pulling at loose threads and unraveling the binaries. Creativity takes over and our hands start to speak in an ancient language of knowing. We leave behind judgement, perfectionism, rigidity, and the need to control. We embrace the unknown, the sensory, the fantastical, and the embodied. The plants and pigments are our guides. They remind us that we are them and they are us.
Workshops are 2-4 hours in length for in-person sessions and can be adapted to Zoom. Everyone is welcomed and honoured as an artist in their own right.
Plant Alchemies: The Natural Dye Workshop
Plant dyes have long been used by our ancestors as adornment, as medicine that is absorbed through the skin, and as social and cultural signifiers. This workshop will share stories of the deep spiritual significance of plant dyes on turtle island, South-Asia and the levant as well as the dark histories of exploitation of plants such as indigo, logwood and cotton. We will consider cloth, colour and the environment in our current global context, and how reclaiming natural dye knowledge can lead to more seasonal and cyclical textile systems embedded in our local ecology.
You will learn about the ancient magic and alchemy of plant dyeing on cellulose and protein-based fibres. Bundle dyeing is a simple, and versatile technique to create texture and imprints of colour on cloth. You will learn about the processes of mordanting cloth, preparing dye materials, and way to fix colour to cloth. We will play with flowers grown in gardens, plants gathered from the land, and food waste collected from our kitchens to bundle dye a cotton bandana. All materials are provided, however you are welcome to bring flowers or plant materials that you’d like to experiment with!
Plant Alchemies: The Natural Ink Workshop
Natural ink-making has been mastered across many writing traditions including the Islamic calligraphy tradition that combined aesthetics with text. In this workshop we will dive into stories and folklore around colour, the labour-intensive ways that colour was derived, and the ephemerality of some natural colours. We will gather plants from our bioregion and use food waste to create a rich palette of plant-based inks. We will paint colour swatches, and intuitive paintings to collaborate with the plants and honour the many gifts they give us.
Pressed Wildflower Art & Floral Folklore
Flowers have been part of our lineages for millenia, with ancient burial sites found in Palestine dated over 14,000 years ago that were lined with flowers and aromatic plants. Flowers are a sensory feast that have been and continue to be used during times of spiritual and social significance such as birth, death, marriage, celebration, and reverence of our ancestors. In this workshop we will consider our visceral connection to flowers through poetry and floral folklore from cultures around the world. You will learn about names and stories of local wildflowers and foliage, and various methods of pressing and storing flowers. Lastly, we will create various compositions and designs using flowers pressed by the artist on handmade paper and cards.
Colours of the Land: Making Earth Pigments
Connect with the colours of the earth and create watercolour paints with ochres, clays, and charcoal. Learn about gathering and creating wild pigments, working with local binders, and painting on wild surfaces. We will tune in to the most ancient form of paint making and expression, share colour stories, and create paints through crushing and processing rocks. All participants will take home their own mini earth pigment watercolour set.
Places of Comfort: Making Miniature Worlds
We all have a place of comfort, whether real or imagined. In this workshop we will creatively reflect upon this theme through writing and drawing. We will transform ideas into a miniature world created using foraged, found, and upcycled materials.
Participants are invited to bring a teacup, mug, or vessel to create their world in, along with any materials they would like to incorporate — rocks, shells, dried flowers etc.
