Foraging For Color
Cultus Bay Gardens on Whidbey Island, 2025
August 2nd, 9th, & 16th
10 - 4 pm (bring a lunch)
$125 per individual workshop
or
$325 for full 3-day series
Embark on a unique journey into the world of colors sourced directly from nature. In this workshop series, we delve into the art of creating paints, inks, and pastels from natural sources. It's a one-of-a-kind experience that involves foraging for pigments in nature, gaining insights into local ecology, and learning the art of responsible foraging. Throughout the series, we will cover working with botanicals, fungi, insects, and earth pigments, highlighting their strengths as art materials.
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Botanical Watercolors
August 2nd, 2025
10 - 4 pm
Natural watercolors can bring both delicate and powerful colors to your artwork. Compact and perfect for traveling, a set of hand-made, natural watercolors will be a delightful companion! During this workshop, we will learn how to extract colors from botanical sources and convert them into non-soluble lake pigments, which can then be mulled into watercolor paints. Participants will practice making a lake pigment from a dye-producing flower from start to finish. Many materials will be collected before the workshop, but we will walk the property and discuss ways to identify color-producing plants. During the second half of the workshop, we will mix up custom watercolor palettes from botanical lake pigments. You will leave with six half-pans of watercolor paint and a storage box.
Techniques covered in the workshop include identifying sources of color in nature, converting a dye bath into a lake pigment, paint binder recipes & optional additives, blending pigments to create secondary colors, and mulling pigments into watercolor paints.
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Natural Inks
August 9th, 2025
10 - 4 pm
Natural inks offer an intense and unique color range that watercolors cannot achieve. Many natural materials work well as ink but not as watercolor, and we will learn to differentiate these qualities in this workshop. Starting with foraged materials, we will make dye-based inks from start to finish. We will extend the color range by manipulating pH, mixing in minerals, and combining multiple pigments. You will leave with six unique 1 oz ink bottles made together during the workshop.
Techniques covered in this workshop include identifying sources of color in nature, making dye-based inks, making lake pigment-based inks, ink binder recipes, extending the color range with iron, copper, & pH, and making UV reactive mushroom ink!
Soft Pastels
August 16th, 2025
10 - 4 pm
Soft pastels are packed with pigment and can bring intense, concentrated natural colors to your artwork.
This workshop will focus on working with earth pigments to create vibrant pastels. We will walk through the process of grinding and levigating local earth matter to create artist-quality pigment extractions. We will develop a range of color tones and blends to create a custom palette. You will leave with a set of soft pastels and a storage box.
Techniques covered in this workshop include identifying and collecting earth pigments, grinding and levigating, pastel binder recipes & optional additives, mixing pastels to the right consistency, color blending, creating multiple tones from a single pigment, and shaping & stamping pastels.
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