Natural Dye Plants 3D

Natural Dye Plants Virtual 3D with Sarah Gotowka

The 3D series is a multidimensional workshop series designed for B.I.P.O.C. (Black, Indigenous, &/or People of Color) to deepen skills in specific farming and land stewardship practices in a culturally relevant, supportive, and joyful environment.

Natural Dye Plants offers an in depth look at pigment bearing plants that you can cultivate and forage, find in a grocery store, and even in a compost bin.

Textile artist and farmer, Sarah Gotowka, of Luna Fiber Studio will guide us through this workshop, presenting some of the colonialist and violent histories of these plants and offering participants space to reflect upon relationships to plants, color, cloth, cloth making, and land.

Sarah will answer your technical questions about the cultivation and extraction processes of natural dyeing and participants will deepen their understanding of the movements away from industrialized textile systems.

Language: The instruction will be delivered in English.

Cost: The sliding scale is $5-100. Please think generously - what could be more important to contribute to than living food, land sovereignty, and skilled farmers spreading the love and knowledge?!

While the workshop is designed to be a culturally relevant and safe space that centers Black, Indigenous and People of Color (read why here), an instructional video will be available on YouTube as part of Soul Fire’s Liberation on Land (LOL) video series for everyone to enjoy.

LOL Introduction to Natural Dyeing will showcase a step-by-step demonstration of the process of natural dyeing at home, using easily available, sustainable and low cost resources. Registered participants will receive a link to the video at least one week prior to the workshop.

Donations are accepted from those who would like to support BIPOC participant attendance. Following the workshop those who donate will receive a recording of the virtual event, a link to the LOL video, and any accompanying educational resources.

Registration and donations close Monday, September 26 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time.

Presenter:

Sarah Gotowka (she/her) is the owner and director of Luna Fiber Studio, a textile studio based out of Trumansburg NY, specializing in weaving and natural dyeing, rooted in sustainability and social justice. Sarah has been weaving since 2005, and has been growing natural dyes since 2010. She received her BFA in Fibers and Material Studies from The Cleveland Institute of Art in 2007, and her MFA in Fibers and Material Practices from Concordia University in Montreal in 2013.

Since moving to the Ithaca area she has taught at SUNY Cortland, Cornell University, Ithaca College, The Johnson Museum of Art, Wells College, and New Roots Charter School to name a few. Sarah is a Korean adoptee and formerly worked for the Adoptive and Foster Family Coalition of New York. There she mentored youth adoptees, and advocated around trans-racial adoption issues. Weaving and dyeing have been a powerful healing tool in Sarah’s journey of exploring her roots and connecting to her ancestral knowledge.

Soul Fire Farm is an Afro-Indigenous centered training farm committed to ending racism and seeding sovereignty in the food system. Our food sovereignty programs reach over 10,000 people each year, including farmer training for Black and Brown growers, reparations and land return initiatives for northeast farmers, food justice workshops for urban youth, home gardens for city-dwellers living under food apartheid, doorstep harvest delivery for food insecure households, and systems and policy education for public decision-makers.