PIGMENTS FROM NATURE
WITH OLD MILL ARTS
Crafting Indigo Based Art Materials
Saturday 7th March 2026
10.00am - 3.30pm
£85*
During this workshop you will explore the fascinating and extraordinary world of Indigo blue from plants.
You will make yourself an indigo based set of art materials including genuine indigo inks, paints, pastels and artist’s crayons. You will learn how to add other plant and earth colours to indigo to create spectrums of colour, and you will go home with a range of your own art materials, unique to you.
Famously the original colour of blue jeans, there is so much more to the story of indigo and alongside crafting with indigo, you will learn about the many different plants that produce indigo, the considerable history of cultivation and the use of these plants by different cultures over thousands of years.
As well as going home with your own hand crafted range of indigo based artist materials, you will be given notes and recipes for to continue these beautiful crafts at home.
We use only organic indigo from Tarai blue indigo farm in India in our indigo art materials. This project grows, harvests and processes Indigo tinctoria in time honored ways, giving fair work to local crafts people. Visit Indigo Design for more information.
The price of this workshop includes all materials, and reflects the amount of handmade art materials you will take home.
*we have bursary places available on each workshop for people on a low income, please do inquire, we are happy to answer any queries.
*One fully refundable place is available to anyone living with a chronic condition. This scheme enables people to book in the knowledge that they can cancel on the day of the workshop, and receive a full refund. Please get in touch if you would like more information or to take this place.
Colours from Trees
Sunday 8th March 2026
10.00am - 3.30pm
£75*
In this workshop you will learn about the rich and beautiful possibilities of working with trees to create colour and art materials.
During the course of the day different aspects of this intriguing subject will be covered. Firstly you will be shown how to make a range of drawing charcoals from different trees, and then how to transform the charcoals into rich, dark satisfying paints, and how to control textures and consistencies of paint for various effects.
You will then learn about the considerable variety of inks that can be created from trees, and experience making some which will be bottled for you to then take home at the end of the day. We have some vital tricks to share to help achieve colour rich inks with beautiful consistencies.
We will cover some inks you might be familiar such as oak gall and walnut, and others which are more obscure such as colours from alder catkins or hemlock fir tree root.
In conjunction to inks we’ll also demonstrate the relationship between ink and dye, and on on a small scale, show dyes colouring pre-mordanted wool.
The day will also include experimenting with the vital reactions between tannin and iron to darken colours. This can also be employed to achieve some interesting effects and time will be given to trying out making beautiful layered patterns.
Finally you will learn about tree based binders as well as how and to what surfaces, the colour of trees can be applied.
*we have bursary places available on each workshop for people on a low income, please do inquire, we are happy to answer any queries.
*One fully refundable place is available to anyone living with a chronic condition. This scheme enables people to book in the knowledge that they can cancel on the day of the workshop, and receive a full refund. Please get in touch if you would like more information or to take this place.