Upcoming Learning Opportunities
ONLINE WORKSHOP
From Plant to Pigment: Cook the Book
An online workshop series
Hosted by Natalie
Alternate Saturdays starting February 14, 1:00 - 3:00pm EST
Inspired by the history and craft of color-making, From Plant to Pigment is a recipe book for creating handmade, homegrown, and local pigments. Join author Natalie Stopka to learn the process of transmuting fragile botanical dyes into durable lake pigments, extending the artistic applications of dye colors into expanded media.
In this eight-part live online series, participants will follow along with Natalie to cook their way through the book, concocting 6+ lake pigments utilizing a variety of extraction methods, along with ink, paint, pastel, and charcoal. Working through the recipes with Natalie’s guidance will allow participants to quickly learn the operative chemistry of botanical pigments, and stock their studios with colors ready to create art. Don’t let From Plant to Pigment suffer the fate of so many art manuals and cookbooks: sitting on a shelf to gather dust, their contents unplumbed and lessons unlearned!
This mini-series is designed to provide a solid technical foundation, along with rich context for artistic inspiration and conceptual connectivity. It is open to all levels of experience, but aimed at beginner and intermediate pigment-makers eager to get their hands dirty and their studios supplied with botanical art materials. Registrants are invited to work along with Natalie during our class sessions, sharing outcomes and questions as the course unfolds. Registration is intentionally capped to foster a comfortable and convivial learning environment.
February 14: Introduction to the Studio Larder, Necessary Equipment, and Terminology
February 28: Natalie’s Master Lake Pigment Recipe
March 14: Purple Petals
March 28: Tinctures & Modifiers
April 11: Alkaline Extraction
April 25: Fermentation Extraction
May 9: Inkmaking & Paintmaking
May 23: Charcoal & Pastel
ONLINE TALK
From Plant to Pigment Book Talk
TATTER Textile Library
February 19, 2026
5:00 - 6:30pm EST
Join author Natalie Stopka for a virtual book talk and pigment-making demonstration celebrating the launch of From Plant to Pigment: How to make your own vibrant inks, pastels and paints. This studio manual published by Skittledog Books guides artists in transforming botanical dyes into vibrant lake pigments. From Plant to Pigment explicates the fundamental techniques and chemistry, extending the applications of natural dye colors into expanded artistic media including handmade pigments, paints, and pastels.
Inspired by the history and craft of color-making, Natalie is an artist and educator devoted to the material culture of color. In this virtual book talk, she invites us into her studio, sharing the ways she has divested her practice of non-renewable synthetics in favor of homegrown color. She’ll also share a lake pigment demonstration, a peek at the 200+ colors she concocted testing recipes for the book, and take your questions.
IN-STUDIO
Handmade Watercolors from Plant Pigments
TATTER Textile Library
Brooklyn, New York
February 21
Where does color come from? The many plants that surround and sustain us are rich with color. With a little alchemical know-how, their brilliant hues can be transformed from liquid dye to granular pigment. Join Natalie Stopka, author of From Plant to Pigment, for a workshop delving into the history, chemistry, and hands-on practice of paint-making with botanical pigments. Together we’ll concoct a palette of 8 handmade watercolors for participants to take home in a trusty travel paintbox.
Beginning with Natalie’s master lake pigment recipe inspired by pre-industrial artisan methods, we’ll then mix an all-natural watercolor medium and mull our pigments into paint. Along the way, we’ll also mull over the history of color, with snippets from the artist’s studio, monastic scriptorium, and alchemist’s laboratory. Participants will leave with a paintbox of 8 watercolors and the knowledge to continue expanding their palette of handmade paints. Every shade in our paintbox tells a story through its rich, characterful, botanical color.
TATTER will also be hosting Natalie for a Virtual Book Talk February 19th!
ONLINE TALK
Meet the Maker
Selvedge Magazine
April 22, 2026
1:00 - 2:00pm EST
Natalie Stopka is a leading practitioner and artistic researcher of lake pigments who has been sharing her expertise and love of plant colorants with students for over a decade. She focuses on the material history of colour and sustainable studio practice, utilising a seasonally-changing palette that is ethically foraged or cultivated in her studio garden. In this session, she’ll talk through her creative journey and artistic approach, concluding with a Q&A.
IN-STUDIO
From Plant to Pigment: Introduction to Lake Pigments
Textile Arts Center
Brooklyn, New York
April 26 11:00 - 5:00
For those of us seeking sustainability and ecological connection in our creative practices, the chemically pure colors of today’s art suppliers are very far removed from nature. Join Natalie Stopka, author of From Plant to Pigment, for an introduction to lake pigments. This process of transmuting fragile botanical dyes to durable pigments extends the artistic applications of natural dye colors into expanded media including paint, ink, and pastel. Inspired by the history and craft of color-making, Natalie will share her master recipe for creating handmade, homegrown, and local pigments. Participants will leave with three different pigment colors, an overview of paint-making, and the knowledge to continue exploring lake pigments in their own studios.
Natalie’s studio recipe book From Plant to Pigment: How to make your own vibrant inks, pastels and paints is now available! Participants may wish to purchase a copy at our workshop, or bring a copy to be signed by the author.
IN-STUDIO
Introduction to Lake Pigments
Provincetown Art Association & Museum
Provincetown, Massachusetts
May 14-15
For those of us seeking sustainability and a deeper connection to nature in our creative work, today’s ultra-refined art-store colors can feel very far from nature. Join Natalie Stopka, author of From Plant to Pigment, for a warm introduction to making botanical lake pigments. You’ll learn how delicate plant dyes can be transformed into long-lasting pigments that open up new possibilities in paint, ink, pastel, and more. Drawing on the history and craft of traditional color-making, Natalie will share her recipe for turning handmade botanical pigments into watercolor paints. As we mull our paints, we’ll also take time to reflect on the cultural and ecological stories behind color — from the ethics of foraging and thoughtful ingredient sourcing, to how something as simple as water quality shapes our palette.
Participants will leave with a traveling watercolor palette, a grounding in the history of artists’ colors, and the confidence to continue exploring botanical lake pigments in their own studios.
ONLINE WORKSHOP
Floral Pigments & Botanical Fabric Painting
Selvedge Magazine
Online workshop with Materials Kit
June 6 & 13, 2026
Reconnect to the hues of the natural world with handmade pigments and paint concocted from natural ingredients. Join Natalie Stopka for a warm introduction to making botanical pigments from flowers. You’ll learn how delicate plant dyes can be transformed into durable lake pigments, bringing organic colour to paint and print. Natalie will share the process for using our freshly-made pigments in water-based soya paint. Participants will explore our palette in washfast paintings on silk inspired by the fantastical florals. Though unconventional today, these pigments and paints are rooted centuries-deep in the pre-industrial history of art and artisanry. They not only visually evoke the natural world, but they also materially connect our paintings to nature. Participants will have the option to create pigments from their own garden flowers, bringing homegrown hues into the studio.
What You'll Learn:
How to select dye sources and extract colour from them
The process of transmuting fragile botanical dyes to insoluble lake pigments
Chemistry for artists: mordants, pH, lightfastness, and washfastness
Simple, thrifty, homemade paint binder from soya beans
Washfast fabric painting with homemade botanical pigments
IN-STUDIO
From Plant to Pigment: Cook the Book
Botanical Colors
Seattle, Washington
June 25 - 28, 2026
In this four-day workshop, participants will follow along with Natalie to cook their way through her book From Plant to Pigment: How to make your own vibrant inks, pastels and paints, concocting a rainbow of lake pigments from a variety of extraction methods. We’ll also dip into indigo pigments, charcoal, ink, and pastel. Working through the recipes with Natalie’s guidance, we will reveal the operative chemistry of botanical pigments, come to grips with the question of lightfastness, and learn to control the value, saturation, translucency, and opacity of our colors.
This workshop is designed to provide a solid technical foundation, along with rich context for artistic inspiration and conceptual connectivity. Participants will leave with a travel case of 12 watercolors in brilliant hues, and the knowledge to continue expanding their palette with handmade botanical pigments. Don’t let From Plant to Pigment suffer the fate of so many art manuals and cookbooks: sitting on a shelf to gather dust, their contents unplumbed and lessons unlearned!
IN-STUDIO
A Handmade Palette: Natural, Historical & Garden-grown Watercolors
John C. Campbell Folk School
Brasstown, North Carolina
July 19 - 25, 2026
Where does color come from? Delve into the history, chemistry, and hands-on practice of making pigments and paint. Concoct your own palette of handmade watercolors inspired by artists’ recipes from the 14th to the 17th-century, including earth pigments, lake pigments from the dye garden, and charcoal combined with natural medium. Return home with a paint box of twelve watercolors, a sketchbook of recipes and swatches, and the knowledge to continue expanding your palette.
Check out the JCCFS Scholarship Opportunities before registering! Applications due February 9.
Discounts available to residents of local NC counties, veterans, teachers, and young adults.
IN-STUDIO
Botanical Alchemy: Exploring Extraction Methods for Natural Dyes and Lake Pigments
Sanborn Mills Farm
Loudon, New Hampshire
July 29 - August 2, 2026
Dye plants are remarkable factories of color, biosynthesizing a rainbow of hues for natural dyers, inkmakers, and lake pigment lovers. How do we make the most of these natural resources, eliciting the broadest range and maximum yield of color? Join Natalie Stopka for a five-day exploration of dye extraction methods utilizing plants from the dye garden and beyond. Inspired by recipes from historical dye works and pigment manufacture, we’ll undertake a case study of four plants and four extraction methods: digestion, decoction, fermentation, and tincture. Learn which methods are suited to which plants, and how extraction methods influence dyeing and laking procedures. Participants will leave with a laboratory notebook (provided) documenting our 16+ extractions utilized as dye and pigment, and a personal project: ink, paint, or dyed fibers to fold into their own studio practice. They will also take with them the knowledge to extrapolate our analysis and findings to other plants in future. Some prior experience with dyes or pigments preferred.
Skills and Techniques
Chemistry for artists: dye colorant categorization and pH explication
Exploration and analysis of plant pigments using DIY chromatography
Case study extracting 4 plants by decoction, digestion, fermentation, and tincture
Swatches of 16+ extractions utilized as dye and pigment, organized in our laboratory notebooks
Riveting stories from the history and artistry of color manufacture, from the medieval scriptorium, dye works, and alchemist’s laboratory, up to the present day
Learn about Sanborn Mills Farm Scholarship Opportunities.
Contact Natalie with queries about remote private instruction on intermediate and advanced topics.