Learn how to choose and use plants to transfer natural pigments to paper in planned ways that create prints and patterns. Students will select plants from the wild, the cultivated garden, and the kitchen to generate a diverse palette of colors, designs, and even leaf and flower stencils. In honor of Earth Day and every day, these natural techniques do not require chemicals or additives. Artist Catherine Alice Michaelis will share examples and demonstrations for desired effects. Participants will then follow steps to create their own paper and plant bundles to cook on the stovetop, later unwrapping results and sharing discoveries and successes. Eco-printing can be done indoors or outdoors, but both smell and humidity can be issues indoors, so plan ventilation accordingly. Students will receive a supply list in advance that will include recommended types of paper, suggested plants, and cooking pots/tools—all quite basic and easy to acquire.

This workshop will take place as a Zoom meeting. Instructor and participants will have cameras and micrphones on.

About Catherine Alice Michaelis

Catherine Alice Michaelis has been exploring what an artist book can be for over 30 years. She works with antique printing presses, moveable type, and any printable medium she finds, including: paper, fabric, film, magnets, and veneer to summon a dialog with Nature. When she isn’t printing, she’s sewing unique works on fabrics that intimately explore gender, ageism, and memory loss. Catherine pushes her creative practice through writing, videopoetry, and direct dyeing from plants. Collaborating and participating in community is part of Catherine’s practice. She works with scientists, writers, visual artists, and musicians to make edition print work. She’s responded to crowd sourced calls for participation, institutional invitations to participate in collective works, and she’s organized invitational print sets like Stack the Deck: 18 Artists Mark the Cards for Women’s Health & Healing. Catherine has curated national and international artist book shows in the Pacific Northwest, most recently at Bainbridge Island Museum of Art in 2019. Bringing other artists forward and building community is something she believes in and does.