Join Deepa for a day of exploring beautiful colors that you can grow in your backyard. We’ll begin with a focus on fiber preparation and mordanting and work with alum, symplocos and tannin. The afternoon will be spent preparing dye baths of plants from a summer dye garden, based on Deepa’s recent book 10 Plants for Color. An emphasis will be placed on documentation and record keeping and each participant will go home with sample sheets to begin a dyer’s journal.

Deepa will have copies of her book for sale, and will be signing books for those who wish to purchase a signed copy.

We will have a potluck lunch, giving everyone time to socialize with the instructor and fellow students.

What to bring:

• Bag lunch and any personal beverages and snacks
• Wear layered clothing that you don’t mind getting dirty
• Notebook and camera if desired

The instructor:

Deepa Natarajan is a gardener and natural dyer who has transformed her love of ethnobotany into a year round series of public education programming at the UC Botanical Garden at Berkeley where she’s worked for the past ten years. She founded plantspeople in 2008 as a place to share her love of plants and continue her explorations in the natural world. Visit her website at plantspeople.org. Find her on Instagram: @plantspeople

The location: 

West County Fiber Arts is the studio of felt artist Heidi Harris, on a beautiful 1-acre property in rural Sonoma County, California. Classes will take place both indoors and in the garden.

If you are coming from out of town, overnight accommodations are plentiful in the vicinity — from nearby cottages and hotels to camping at the Russian River. See our Food & Lodging page for suggestions.