Botanical Dye + Aromatherapy Workshop

Spring Eco-Prints + Salt bath scrub making

Today, I am sharing a few of the beautiful photos captured by Emily Sandors photography from Our Botanical Dye and Aromatherapy Workshop in Los Angeles. We only host this workshop a few times annually, about one time per season, excluding winter. It has been interesting to see the colors that are available seasonally, and how we can use plants and food waste to dye our clothing. 

All photos by Emily Sandors Photography

We had a fantastic group of guests join us from all over the city, who were interested in learning more about natural dyes as well as creatives in their own right from calligraphy to fashion illustrators and beyond. At the start of the workshop, I share little bit about my background in interiors and painting textiles. Then, we discuss natural dyeing. I am always looking for ways to live more in sync with nature and botanical printing is such a fabulous way to create a textile repeat and infuse your clothing with natural colors. 
I tend to create patterns that are both organic and kaleidoscopic, so those are the methods that I teach. Each guest brings their own artistic perspective and sensibilities to each piece. 

Read more to see the final fabulous eco-printing results, how we mixed up our bath salts and and to receive your free guide to botanical printing supplies! 

But first, tea. This was an evening workshop, and we began by dipping the petals and leaves into a mineral mordant solution. I instruct this technique as part of the workshop. We used California wildflowers, zinnias, marigolds, rose petals, and eucalyptus. We used onion skins, avocado skins as well as leaves collected from the garden. In eco-printing the color results from the transfer of the tannin onto the fabric. In our case, we used silk blanks. 

Here is a close-up of the set-up along with the wooden dowels that we rolled/ fastened fabrics onto, prior to steaming. 

Here is how they look after they steam for about 1 hour, after being rolled tightly onto the dowel.

While the bundles steam, we enjoy creating a sea salt scrub with certified Aromatherapist, Flin Grant. We used 3-4 types of salt, coarse salt, pink salt and Himalayan salt. Those who prefer showers to bath soaks had the option to make shower scrubs using apricot kernel oil. I will save all of these details for a future post with Flin, in case you'd like to learn the basics of creating a scrub! 

You can see the scrubs coming together nicely as each guest adds their own blend of dried petals. We chose from chamomile, rose, lavender and black tea. 

Join our next Botanical Dye and Salt Scrub Workshop

I really do love the spontaneity and symmetry of eco printing on silk. 

If you are eager to tackle a simple project right away, then be sure to check out my Natural Dyeing with Avocado pits and join me on Instagram, where I posted tutorials and tips. 

Lastly, a big thank you to Flin, who co-hosted this workshop and to Emily Sandor for her luminous photography.