Power of Plants: Botanical Eco Printing
Step into the world of creating with natural colors, shapes, and textures from plants!
Not scheduled right now. Last taught 2026.
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The workshop
Step into the world of creating with natural colors, shapes, and textures from plants! Join us to learn various techniques focused on sustainable methods for printing, painting, dyeing and more with natural materials, and creative ways to work with pigments for a variety of projects and ideas. During this five day workshop, students will learn the basics of eco printing and natural dyeing with locally foraged plants and food waste onto different types of fabric and paper, as well as beginner sewing and book arts techniques to create folded and stitched books, patches, and more. Students will first learn how to properly prepare different fabrics to mordant; a crucial step to ensure consistent lightfast and washfast colors. Exploring the vast realm of possibilities within this technique, students will print onto cotton, linen, and silk fabrics as well as watercolor paper to understand the scope of creative potential when using varied materials. A collection of materials to print, stitch, and dye with will be provided, and participants are also encouraged to bring fiber items from home to transform in the studio.
This class offers a combination of outdoor foraging, printmaking, bookmaking and fiber processes, thereby offering a realm of possibilities that allow for full exploration with each mode of making. These processes reveal exciting opportunities for layering and cross-pollination. While tuning into our surroundings at Sanborn Mills farm, we will allow time, space, and support to create memories of the season and place as individuals and a collective. These meditative techniques yield unique, one-of-a-kind results, and provide opportunities to let go while collaborating with nature. All levels of experience are welcome!
Skills and techniques
- Sustainable & mindful foraging techniques
- Suggestions for proper plant identification & safety
- Basics of mordanting (fabric pretreatment)
- A basic understanding of the following processes using a variety of materials: eco printing, natural dyeing, ink making, book making, hand sewing, machine
- Bundling and fabric preparation techniques that yield different printed results
- How to care for your printed fabrics
- Resources for continued making & learning on your own
Before you come
Details for students
Where
One of the farm's studios, confirmed at check-in. See the campus
Staying on the farm
Housing, meals, the daily schedule, and places to stay nearby are on Prepare for your workshop.
Your instructor
Katama Murray
Teach Peace Prints is a small, woman-owned business led by Katama Murray, which focuses on printmaking and fiber techniques that utilize natural materials. As an eco artist, educator and naturalist, Katama is inspired by patterns, shapes, and colors that dwell within natural spaces and organisms. Growing up along the coast of Downeast Maine and regions of New England, she has always been influenced by the outdoors and the ways in which we coexist with the natural world. Katama has a BFA in Printmaking from Plymouth State University in New Hampshire and an MFA in Printmaking from Indiana University-Bloomington. She has taught workshops and exhibited work throughout New England and beyond, yet will always be drawn to the beauty of the Northeast coast. Since starting the Teach Peace Prints journey in 2020, she creates handmade products on paper and fabric using a variety of materials and processes, and enjoys combining interconnected techniques while mindfully collaborating with the natural world. Sewn, naturally dyed, and printed by hand, TPP offers unique, one of a kind products for those who wish to bring elements of nature into their homes and daily lives. Featuring items such as everyday textiles, prints and creative supplies for fellow makers, each collection of work is seasonally inspired and based on the importance of place. Tuning into the rhythm of the seasons and the plants that exist within those moments in time help to foster a deeper connection to local environments with respect, admiration, and care. Sharing these process-driven techniques to individuals and communities through educational opportunities such as workshops and events is a way to further connect and inspire one another through making and learning. Katama believes that the process of making and constant learning in tandem with nature can help to encourage further awareness and appreciation of our natural surroundings.
Questions about this workshop, housing, or meals? Email registrar@sanbornmills.org or call (603) 435-7314. Please read the workshop policies before you register.