Natural Color Lab

Using color from biological and mineral sources in your creative practice can be both thrilling and daunting. This hands-on workshop will emphasize the reasons behind the recipes. We’ll explore tannic iron reactions in botanical inks, watercolor and wax binders for foraged earth pigments, botanical indigo bonded to clay in Maya blue, converting dye to pigment with lake pigments, and homemade charcoals. You’ll leave with a new set of artists materials and the technical knowledge to create a palette of natural painting and drawing supplies unique to your practice.

Carolyn Sweeney is an artist who teaches classes on mineral pigment watercolors, botanical inks, and crayon making. She runs a business called Strata Ink selling handmade inks and crayons. She has a BA in Fine Art from Whitman College, but her most treasured knowledge has come from time spent on the land and tending to her experiments in the studio.

• Variety of watercolor and drawing papers for swatching and experimenting

• Variety of water-based media brushes

• Notebook

• Pencil

• Dust mask

• 2 pint or quart glass jars with lids (clean reused jars are fine)

• Small containers with watertight lids

• Plant material

• Earth pigments

• Mortar and pestels

• Mullers and mulling slabs

• Watercolor binder

• Soy wax

• Pots

• Filters

• Spoons

• Palette knives

• Ink bottles

• Paint pans

• Crayon molds

• Crayon tins