DAY 1: PAINTS – Learn how to make beautiful paints from what you can forage in nature and find in your neighborhood. Using materials from the earth, trees, plants, and water, make colorful natural paints that our ancestors would have used, including watercolors, tempera, and glair. The day will be hands-on and practical but you’ll also learn about the traditional uses of all the paints you make.

DAY 2: INKS – Learn to make oak gall and iron gall ink, the traditional ink of the Magna Carta, Declaration of Independence, and almost all European illuminated manuscripts. Utilize a foraged, simple technique as well as a studio method, both making beautiful black inks. You will also make quill pens and brushes from goose or turkey feathers. Go home with inks, pens, brushes, and the knowledge of how to brew up simple colorful inks and long-lasting tannin-based inks at home. 

**Please wear old clothes to both workshops, as some of the materials we’ll use can stain. Bring a sketchbook and favorite brush or two to make swatches of your paints/inks throughout the session. All other materials will be provided.

Foraging before class? Feel free to bring any large feathers – goose, swan, gull or crow; as well as any oak galls or sea shells that you find.