Botanical Contact Printing
Weekend Intensive
April 27 & 28, 2024
10-4pm each day
Instructor: Hilary Baker
Stemming from centuries-old natural dyeing techniques, botanical contact printing (also known as eco-printing) is a process of activating tannins and pigments found in plants and transferring them, by way of steam, to another natural substrate (fabric, paper, clay or wood.)
Beginning this weekend journey into nature and art-making will be a morning foraging expedition on the stunning campus of The Marlboro Studio School, focusing on native, ruderal, and invasive plants proven effective with this process. With our collected materials we will move onto a concise step by step presentations and demonstrations to producing your own one-of-a-kind botanical print. Day Two we will proceed with additional techniques and experimentation with this fascinating collaboration of art, botany, and alchemy.
This workshop will cover all the essential steps and recipes needed to create a permanent botanical contact print on fabric. You will learn some of most effective native plant species of the season, the use of both cellulose and protein fabrics, pre-scouring, mordants and modifiers, bundling techniques, pre-dyeing, and carrier blankets. A list of references and resources, along with a take home kit will also be available.
Lunch will be provided each day.
The materials fee for this class is $50, payable on the first day of the workshop.
This class is open to students 16 years of age and older.
Skill Level: 1-3, all are welcome.
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Please contact us if you need recommendations for area accommodations.
Skill levels: 1 - Beginner; 2 - Beginner/Intermediate; 3 - Intermediate; 4 - Intermediate/Advanced; 5 - Advanced
Instructor: Hilary Baker
My career began as an art student at the Corcoran School of Art, and a BFA in digital arts from the University of Massachusetts. In the years following, my work centered around animation, video art, and fine art digital printing combined with alternative photography, while working in both educational and commercial realms of the visual arts.
As a long time artist and gardener, five years ago I set out to make my own studio practice more environmentally sustain able with the firm goal to develop a much stronger connection to nature and awareness to the vulnerabilities that now exist within our natural environment. At the start of this journey, I stumbled across botanical contact printing and haven’t looked back since. For the last five years I have been honing down my skills and gaining the knowledge of procuring color from nature through botanical printing, natural dyes and the making of my own plant-based pigments, all of which I am in the process of incorporating into my encaustic paintings.