Plant Dye Workshop at the Perfumery!

“You are an alchemist; make gold of that.” 

~ William Shakespeare 

Plant Dye Workshop: Botanical Alchemy

Sunday, March 1st from 10am - 4pm

in Agoura Hills, CA

Mona Lewis, Sunsprite Handwork and Roxana of Illuminated Perfume have aligned their passion and skills to bring a day of intense play and alchemy as we dye soft wool travel wraps using delightfully simple Ecoprint bundle dyeing' techniques.

We will begin by stitching a selection of natural fabric patches into our wraps, then use the simplest of ingredients - leaves and water - to add exquisite natural color to our work. After lunch, while the wraps are in the dye-pot, we will stitch a beautiful travel bag in which to keep the wraps safe when they're not draped around our shoulders'.

Our hands-on day begins at 10am at the Roxana Illuminated Perfume Workshop with morning tea on arrival, followed by a short introduction to the plant dye process. Mona will then guide us through the process of stitching and dyeing before we sit down to enjoy a seasonal lunch prepared by Blue Table Restaurant (while the dye-pot bubbles away in the background). An unfurling of the wraps, along with some more simple stitching will complete the afternoon, which we expect will end around 4pm.

Ms. Lewis, the conductor of this special day, uses ecologically sustainable contact print processes from plants as a means of exploring the amazing colors of nature and finding relevant, artistic applications. She works as a handwork teacher in the Waldorf Education movement sharing her love of natural color throughout the curriculum. Her students are children of all ages. She heads up the soft handwork section of Waldorf Initiative for Teacher Training and holds continuing educational workshops for adults. Learn more about Mona's on her Facebook Pages: Mona Lewis and Sunsprite Handwork and on Instagram.

Please wear suitable clothing and bring a notebook to write in. The fee for the entire day, including materials is $360 per person. A deposit of $180 will reserve your seat, with the balance due by February 28th. The deposit is refundable if the cancellation is made by February 15th.

Due to the nature of the class, participation is limited to ten lucky students, we encourage reserving your seat now. Please contact Roxana to reserve your seat: text/e-mail: roxana@illuminatedperfume.com or by phone (818) 992-0490.

This is a unique and special experience in our local community using plants from our area in the gorgeous, peaceful setting of Agoura Hills.

Location:
Roxana Illuminated Perfume
Whizin Market Square, Atrium Building, second floor
28914 Roadside Dr, unit #219
Agoura Hills, CA 91301

Other upcoming workshops will include:
Color from the Kitchen
Rock Stars of the Plant Dye world (Brazilwood and Logwood)
Bugs are the Best
The Mystery of Indigo

A special free introductory Valentines workshop will be announced shortly, stay tuned.

Plant Dye Demo ReCap

The plant dye demo on Saturday was great fun. Despite the rain we had a terrific gathering of ladies ranging from devotees of gardening, native plants, the fiber community, Waldorf and artists.

We arrived at the perfumery early to begin organizing elements for the day. Mona began warming the color, I hung the pre-dyed square kerchiefs to make selection more fluid. Although the heating of the dye bath took place in the interior of the space the dye process took place just outside to take advantage of the natural light and avoid clutter of bodies.

During the week I received a message from Mona telling me that in preparation for the class she was going to make herself a special shirt for the day with some of the rose petal printed leaf silks with some of the pink color added.

The lecture was presented within Mitchells Bookshop where there was ample space for all the attendees. Mona explained how natural dyes have a beautiful, long history where each color and plant has a story of its own. She shared how in the modern world, where synthetic dyes dominate, there are rivers in different areas of the planet that will run in different colors depending on what the big, multi-national factory might be dyeing that dye. The result of these types of practices is cities, communities and cultures are then poisoned by the toxic runoff.

With natural dyes we go back to our routes and the vital connection to plants. The process requires much time and patience but has the value supporting agriculture, our environment and handwork. I couldn't help but see the perfect connection to the fine art of botanical perfume.

Mona shared with us her yarn basket which showcases all the different colors obtained from the natural world, except one. We were all asked to guess which one within her basket did not come from nature, do you know which? None of us in attendance guessed correctly.

Besides some biology and psychology of color we also learned a bit of chemistry that not all the dyes are fugitive and thus must be treated with a "mordant" so that the color can adhere to the fabric for washing. This has to do with positive and negative charges between fabric and dye.

After the lecture we walked down the hall, picked up our squares and formed a line. Mona gave suggestions on how to go about dipping our fabric and what might take place depending how various procedures such as moistening in water first or not, dipping only the edges, folding or tying, etc.

Each piece was then hung on a line to dry. The final pieces were as varied as each of the attendees. Here is a photo of Pia (below) as she got ready to leave the byproduct of the day: pink fingers.

The next class in this series will be the day long course where Mona will get into the nitty gritty of the process, share her personal formulas as we dye our very own wool shawl.

Plant Dye Intensive Summary

The plant dye workshop that was originally scheduled for March 1st took place this past Sunday, on March 8th. Lucky for the teacher and attendees it was a fabulously sunny and beautiful day here in the Santa Monica Mountains which added a deeper shade of magic to the whole experience.

Mona, Greg and I arrived at the perfumery early to get things set up. The night before I prepared two things for the day, both based on lavender. The first was a whipped cream cheese and the second was a hand and body balm. For the whipped cream cheese I took one standard block of cream cheese and put it in the food processor with 1 tablespoon Hedcote lavender blossoms (from Ojai), a teaspoon dried Rosemary from our back lot and a few other random herbs that I can't remember...probably sage. I whipped all of together and then put into a glass container for the following morning.

The hand and body butter is something I've been making for a couple years. At some point soon, when I am convinced that it is a fabulous product, it will become available. If any of you fine readers would like a sample tossed into your next order please send me a note.

Back to the workshop...we set up two boiling pots and a large selection of plant material down the hallway next to the perfumery. Meanwhile, inside we set up the other items we would be using and snacks at the lavender colored table within the teaching area.

For our first project we had the option of choosing to dye fabric for a travel bag for our wool wrap or dye a silk scarf. I choose a rectangular silk scarf. The second project was a long wool shawl. Before the dying process Mona took us outside and explained the different colors that the plants might impart to our fabric. There are generalities with plants and colors, but as nature contains wild magick which cannot be tamed, sometimes the color varies. She had fun names for each of the different Eucalyptus leaves, like "Lost Hills" etc. which relates to an exact tree in an area.

We each selected a spot, spread out our fabric and began our compositions, in complete awareness of letting go to the intention of the plant divas. I choose to go for a water color type look for the scarf with colors from my palette, to achieve my desire I used plant materials that printed more in darker brown, umber and mauve hues. This included onion skins and an iron fleur de lis that would add some black.

Once we had all the plant material placed we rolled it all up and tied them with string. Greg's looked like a sushi hand roll, while mine was a super odd shape due to the fleur de lis iron. Once they were rolled and ready we through them into the pot. By the way, a nice benefit of using eucalyptus leaves and other botanicals is that it fills the space with the aromatic molecules, in this case Eucalyptus which made the day feel like we were at a spa.

While our first pieces cooked we each worked on the pocket for our wool shawl and or the travel bag. The pocket for my shawl was made of a few different fabrics including one little piece meant to hang to give it a boho type quality.

Next came the removal and unveiling of first eco printed items. When we pulled them out of the pot they were really hot and steaming, which was tricky when unrolling. Here is a photo of Teresa with hers and one of Monica, leaves and matter included. You will notice how one is more graphic and one more washes of color.

After lunch down at Blue Table we began pulling out our secondary bundles out of the pots. The unveiling of each persons piece was always exciting, producing lots of ou's and  awes.

Above is my wool shawl, freshly unrolled and below folded with pocket exposed.

I'm so grateful to have had Mona come and share her vast knowledge with each of us. It was such a wonder filled day that I wish for every one. Doing these types of activities connects us more deeply to nature and in doing so eases anxiety and increases our relationship with Gaia and other sentient beings on this planet that we share.

Next workshop with Mona will be "Color from the Kitchen" planned for April, details coming soon!

The Golden Cloak of Autumn Arrives to Santa Fe

A few of the sign posts signaling the arrival of Autumn here in Santa Fe, New Mexico have been sighted. We begin with a flowering native commonly referred to as Rabbitbrush, Chamisa, and Rubber Rabbitbrush,  the latin is Ericameria nauseous and/or Chrysothamnus nauseous.

Chamisa

Above: Chamisa in June

I find Chamisa particularly interesting to watch through the seasons. In early Spring the little, elongated leaves begin to emerge with a gorgeous sage/teal color which stays through Monsoon season until late Summer when you start to see the golden yellow flower pods. In late August early September the flowers begin to open with the landscape around Santa Fe turning gold.

Above: Chamisa in August 2019

Above: Chamisa at the end of her bloom cycle September 2017

Chamisa is a drought tolerant, perennial with great value to the pollinators and animals that browse and forage. The leaves, flowers and seeds are all food sources as well as a source of shelter for small animals, hence the name rabbitbrush.

I've witnessed chamisa to be quite tolerant in the harsh desert climate where water can be scarce while the heat and wind intense. Another lovely feature of chamisa is that it provides us with a hydrosol and essential oil.

Cholla

Above: Cholla, April 2019

Above: Cholla, September 2019

The cholla (pronounced "choy-ah") cactus, also called cane, jumping and walkingstick cactus (Cylindropuntia imbricata), is another one with variety through the seasons. From my observation, in general, the fruits begin to turn yellow gold in late Summer/early Autumn and maintain this hue almost right up until May when the cholla seems to awaken with a very short window of spectacular magenta flowers. There is some variation from plant to plant, as I have seen some of the stalks go to seed and some of the fruits dry up. This is one that I am still getting to know, and as you may recall helped in bringin forward the Perfumed Bestiary series.

I've been told that The Shed in downtown Santa Fe, cooks with the fruits of cholla.

Above: Cholla, May 2019

Above: Cholla, Late June 2019

Opuntia

Our other local cactus is the Opuntia, commonly known as Prickly Pear. The fruit is the part called the prickly pear as well as tuna, sabra, nopal (paddle, plural nopales) from the Nahuatl word nōpalli for the pads, or nostle, from the Nahuatl word nōchtli for the fruit; or paddle cactus.1

Above: Opuntia, June 2019

The fruit of the opuntia is edible, another feature of the plant is that the insect is extremely valuable in the plant dye industry. Although cactus plants exist in many parts of our Earth they native to the Americas.

This beauty comes in many colors and has a cycle which is not quite as striking through the four points of the season wheel. Below is the peach colored blossom from June with of photo of how it looks now in September.

Above: Peach Opuntia, September 2019

I've heard that besides the cochineal that live on the plant, the fruits can also be used for plant dye, thus I will be mindfully gather them and doing some tests.

Above: Juniper berries, September 2019

There are many other plants that thrive in this high desert landscape, like the pinon, juniper, asters, etc. which I will share as I continue to learn, study and communicate with them.

1 Wikipedia

Poetry of Scent & Color

Poetry of Scent & Color

The Alchemical Union of Plant Dye and Aromatics

A Workshop with Mona Lewis and Roxana Villa

Seats are limited sign up here
All materials provided.
Early bird registration $296 / $350 after August 25th

_________________________________

“There's something about materials like copper, woods, stone, trees, shells. 

You walk outside and these materials are part of the world before we touched anything. 

There's a feeling of pleasure that many of us have in materials 

that have some presence before us, like clay and wood and copper.” 

~ Jessica Stockholder

I am delighted to host a series of classes which include a weekend workshop with my longtime friend Mona Lewis. It was at the perfumery in Los Angeles where I invited Mona to do some workshops, those classes have set the cobblestones in place for this new series in Santa Fe. Mona and I both have a love of the natural world and the handmade object, she is a perfect fit for the School of Lost Arts.

The workshop is suitable for anyone wishing to deepen their relationship with making things with their hands, aromatic plants and their own healing journey. Join us for a memorable weekend of learning, sharing and aromatic inner healing... but please don’t delay in booking your place, as numbers are limited!

In this two day intensive we will:
1. Learn the foundations of alchemy and how the principals apply to plant color & scent
2. Create a color wheel using natural pigments, which we will reference for making your very own plant based fragrance.
3. Distill an aromatic scarf with images, colors and scents of New Mexico's beautiful earth & sky.
4. Make a custom botanical perfume from plants.
5. Perceive a greater understanding of the unity of these Lost Arts.

This workshop is intended to help participants develop a deeper and more personal, intuitive relationship with oneself and nature.

Mona Lewis
Workshop Co-Facilitator

Ms. Lewis, the conductor of this special day, uses ecologically sustainable contact print processes from plants as a means of exploring the amazing colors of nature and finding relevant, artistic applications. She has taught handwork for more than twenty years in the Waldorf Education movement sharing her love of natural color throughout the curriculum. She heads up the soft handwork section of Waldorf Initiative Practical Arts Teacher Training Program and holds continuing educational workshops for adults. Her students are individuals of all ages. Learn more about Mona's on Facebook Sunsprite Handwork and Instagram, and keep in eye out for her upcoming book "Natures Paint Box" about her plant dye experiences with children in the classroom.

Roxana Villa
Workshop Co-Facilitator

Argentina by birth, Roxana's family set their roots in Southern California when she was a young child. Roxana make perfumes that draw upon the ancient wisdom in nature creating a heightened sense of timeless elegance. Complex botanical fragrances are life enhancing and have the ability to deeply connect us to our own essential nature. She is on a mission to spread awareness of the many gifts we acquire from the plant world and teach others to do the same. She currently makes her home in New Mexico with her partner, Greg Spalenka where she has founded the School of Lost Arts and continues to work on a variety of projects.

Roxana and Mona share a core vibration in their love of nature, beauty and the handmade.

LOCATIONS AND DATES

• Make Your Own Locally Foraged Pigments: Friday, August 30th, 2019
Time: 1:00 pm am to 3:00 pm
All materials provided. Early bird registration $60 / $70 after August 25th

• Poetry of Scent and Color: Saturday & Sunday, August 31st and September 1st, 2019 (2 days).
Times: 10:00 am am to 5:00 pm daily.
All materials provided. Early bird registration $296 / $350 after August 25th

• Basket Weaving With Locally Foraged Plants: Monday, September 1st, 2019
Time: 1:00 pm am to 3:00 pm
All materials provided. Early bird registration $60 / $70 after August 25th

Please note that the course fee is in all cases non-refundable and non-transferable.
Tel: 505-954-1450 for further info.

REGISTER

To book a place in the course, please submit your contact details and the course fee in any one of the following 3 ways:
• To book in person please contact Roxana to meet at the Perfumery.
• To book by making a credit/debit card payment, please follow the link to the website.
• To book by post, please send a cheque (payable to Roxana Villa) with your name, address, tel no and email address to: Roxana Villa, 1600 Lena Street, unit A6, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87505

Accommodations
For overnight accommodations near the Lena Street Lofts, we recommend the El Rey Inn on Cerrillos in Santa Fe. One of my recent students recommends the Econo lodge on Cerrillos Rd is a very well maintained property. The landlady is very hospitable and genuinely caring.  

Plant Dye Workshop This Sunday!

The Plant Dye Workshop with Mona Lewis has been rescheduled for this Sunday, March 8th.  Mona has been putting a kit together for each attendee. If you would like to be included in the circle of students please contact one of us soon so that we can prepare for you.

The photos included in this post were taken here in the woodland of a dress and vest made by Mona as a fundraiser for Highland Hall Waldorf School. The fabrics were dyed using the technique we will learn on Sunday.

The models in these photos are Highland Hall alumnae Isabelle Howell and Kellee Bryant.

Pre-Plant Dye Prep

In preparation for tomorrows plant dye experience Mona has been pre-dying some of the little square kerchiefs which will be dyed a second time to add some magenta hues over the existing color.

I must admit that the pre-dyed silks are pretty cool on their own. I've already fallen in love with a few that I'm not sure if I will be adding magenta to or not, the one with the elemental bee face is currently hanging in the lab space of the perfumery. 

Today I became smitten with this one below in the center that has California lobata oak leaves with another elemental bee/insect type shadow being in the center. Don't worry if you don't see the elementals I see, or see something different. I tend to see, and smell, things that others don't and vice versa.

The ones with just rose leaves are stunning too....and, as stated above, Mona is making more this evening. So many possibilities!