Express your interest hereBelow is a summary of the workshops series planned for Summer, Autumn & Winter 2027. If you’re interested in attending any of the 2027 workshops, please register your expression of interest using the form below. Please note some sessions have prerequisites.
All bookings will open on 1 January 2028, with priority given to those who have submitted an EOI.
10.01.2027 The Art of Noticing 10:00AM-12:00PM
What happens when we invite a plant to share its colour? In this hands-on workshop, we’ll explore the basic foundations of natural ink-making, transforming botanical materials into inks we can draw and paint with. Working with a selection of plant materials, we’ll experiment with simple extraction techniques and discover how different ingredients, methods and conditions influence the colours we create. We’ll learn to work with the materials, embracing the surprises and subtleties of the process. From gathering and preparing our materials, through their transformation, filtering and testing our inks, each step invites us to slow down, stay curious and leave all expectations behind. No two batches are ever quite the same and that’s part of the magic. You’ll leave with 3 bottles of your own handmade ink, an understanding of the basic ink-making process and the confidence to continue experimenting at home.
COST: $220 pp / includes a nourishing lunch
GROUP SIZE: 8-10 people, 16+
DELIVERY TYPE: Outdoors (1 hour) & Indoors (3.5)
SUPPORTED PLACES: 2 x available
17.01.2027 101_FROM PLANT TO PIGMENT 10:00AM-2:30PM
What happens when we invite a plant to share its colour? In this hands-on workshop, we’ll explore the basic foundations of natural ink-making, transforming botanical materials into inks we can draw and paint with. Working with a selection of plant materials, we’ll experiment with simple extraction techniques and discover how different ingredients, methods and conditions influence the colours we create. We’ll learn to work with the materials, embracing the surprises and subtleties of the process. From gathering and preparing our materials, through their transformation, filtering and testing our inks, each step invites us to slow down, stay curious and leave all expectations behind. No two batches are ever quite the same and that’s part of the magic You’ll leave with 3 bottles of your own handmade ink, an understanding of the basic ink-making process and the confidence to continue experimenting at home.
VENUE:‘CLOTH.PAPER.CLAY’ 72 HYDE STREET, GUMBAYNGGIRR COUNTRY, BELLINGEN, NSW
COST: $220 pp / includes a nourishing lunch
GROUP SIZE: 8-10 people, 16+
DELIVERY TYPE: Outdoors (1 hour) & Indoors (3.5)
SUPPORTED PLACES: 2 x available
PREREQUISITES: ‘The Art of Noticing’ session
11.04.2027 103_FROM PLANT TO CHARCOAL (FIRESIDE) 10:00AM-2:30PM
Fire attunes us. Charcoal invites us to make a mark. Together, they offer a way to reconnect with material, place and the simple act of making something with our hands. Held outdoors around the fire, this hands-on workshop explores the transformation of plant into charcoal and charcoal into mark. Working at the fire’s pace, it will support us to discover the expressive possibilities of our ancestors oldest drawing mediums. Together, we’ll explore the process of making charcoal, considering how different woods, forms and stages of charring influence the material we create. We’ll learn how to handle and prepare our charcoal for drawing, discovering the range of marks it can leave.We’ll move through a series of mark-making experiments shaped by gesture, pressure, texture and erasure.We’ll explore the pleasure of making marks without the pressure of producing finished artwork. You’ll leave with handmade charcoal, a collection of drawing experiments and a renewed appreciation for the creative possibilities held within the materials around us.
VENUE: Northside, Bellingen NSW
COST: $75 pp / includes a light lunch
GROUP SIZE: Unlimited, Ages 16+
DELIVERY TYPE: Outdoors
SUPPORTED PLACES: 2 x available
PREREQUISITES: None
07.05.2027 The Art of Noticing (ON WATER) 10:00AM-12:30PM
What happens when we invite a plant to share its colour? The natural world offers colour in many forms not just in leaves, flowers and berries, but in the earth, the minerals and the traces left behind by fire. In this experimental workshop, we’ll look beyond botanical inks to explore earth pigments, charcoal and other suitable mineral or carbon-based materials. We’ll investigate how these materials differ from plant-derived colour and what is involved in turning a raw material into a workable colour. Through demonstrations and hands-on experiments, we’ll explore texture, opacity, suspension and the relationship between pigment and binder. This is an invitation to expand our understanding of natural colour and to consider the many ways our landscape can become part of a daily practice. You’ll leave with a series of material experiments and a broader palette of possibilities for future making.
VENUE: Hungry Head Beach, Urunga NSW
COST: $15
SESSION DELIVERY: Outdoors - this session will be delivered on watercraft.
SUPPORTED PLACES: Yes
GROUP SIZE: No limit, ages 16+
16.05.2027 104_FROM MAKING COLOUR TO MAKING MEANING 10:00AM-02:30PM
An ink is more than its colour. It has a movement, a way of settling into it’s environment, where and how will it dry is a mystery that takes shape. Once dry it continues to shift and change.In this workshop, we’ll bring our handmade inks into conversation with paper, brush, pen and hand. Through mark-making and guided creative exercises, we’ll explore the different ways natural inks can gift their unique application.We’ll investigate the reflections each ink has to its origin place, its flow, transparency, texture and tone, allowing the material itself to guide our marks. There’s no expectation to produce a perfect artwork. Instead, we’ll make space for experimentation, unexpected gestures and the simple pleasure of working with something we have created with our own hands. Whether you’re an experienced artist or simply curious about putting ink to paper, this is an invitation to explore without the pressure of “getting it right”. You’ll leave with a collection of experiments that you have developed yourself and those that have been developed collaboratively.
VENUE: ‘CLOTH.PAPER.CLAY’ 72 Hyde Street, Gumbaynggirr Country, Bellingen, NSW
COST: $220 pp ~ includes a nourishing lunch
SESSION DELIVERY: Indoors
SUPPORTED PLACES: 2 places
GROUP SIZE: 10
PREREQUISITES: ‘The Art of Noticing’ session and ‘101_From Plants to Pigment’ session
21.06.2027 105_The Art of Remembering 10:00AM-02:00PM
What does it take to truly remember? Every landscape holds infinite threads of relationship - between plants and soil, water and stone, light and shadow, ourselves and the living world we move within. So what does it mean to truly remember our place within this living web? To move through our days not simply as observers, but as embodied humans; to notice the colours, rhythms and seasonal shifts that quietly shape our sense of belonging and mirror our own inner landscapes. Perhaps remembering is less about learning something new and more about returning to what has always been there, waiting to be noticed. In this final workshop of the season, we’ll gather the threads of our colour-making journey so far, bringing our experiments, observations and discoveries into a personal almanac of natural colour. Through swatching, mark making, writing and recording, we’ll document the plants, places, processes and moments of curiosity that have shaped our practice.
VENUE: ‘CLOTH.PAPER.CLAY’ 72 Hyde Street, Gumbaynggirr Country, Bellingen, NSW
COST: $220pp ~ includes a nourishing lunch
SESSION DELIVERY: Outdoors (30 min) + Indoors (3.5 hours)
SUPPORTED PLACES: 2 available
GROUP SIZE: 10, ages 16+
PREREQUISITES: ‘The Art of Noticing’ session AND either: ‘101_From Plants to Pigment’ OR ‘103_Earth & Stone’ OR ‘104_From Making Colour to Making Meaning’
14.03.2027 The Art of Noticing 10:00AM-12:00PM
When we perceive colour, do we ever truly see it in its entirety in all its depth + complexity? Do we consider from where it emerges and how does it come to be? Is colour merely the visible consequence of light absorbed, reflected and translated through the delicate resonance of the eye or does it exist beyond the seeing in the memory, emotionality and anticipation of what lies ahead? What if colour was not something we simply observed, but something we inherently remembered and felt, an ephemeral meeting of light and consciousness? However you come to perceive colour, it is important that before we can make wild ink, we must learn to look around us. Join us for a gentle introduction to the art of noticing ~ an invitation to slow down, explore our surroundings and discover the colour held within the everyday materials of our landscape. Through guided observation and foraging we’ll begin to recognise the materiality of leaves, bark, berries, seed pods and other foraged matter as roar colour. We’ll consider the relationship between material and place, the rhythms of the seasons and the possibilities that emerge when we pay closer attention. This is a workshop about curiosity as much as colour. There’s no prior experience needed, just a willingness to look a little closer. You’ll leave with a collection of observations, a growing understanding of wild colour and the beginnings of your own foraging practice.
COST: $15
SESSION DELIVERY: Outdoors
SUPPORTED PLACES: Yes
GROUP SIZE: No limit, alleges welcome
21.03.2027 102_EARTH & STONE 10:00AM-2:30PM
What happens when we invite a plant to share its colour? The natural world offers colour in many forms not just in leaves, flowers and berries, but in the earth, the minerals and the traces left behind by fire.In this experimental workshop, we’ll look beyond botanical inks to explore earth pigments, charcoal and other suitable mineral or carbon-based materials. We’ll investigate how these materials differ from plant-derived colour and what is involved in turning a raw material into a workable colour. Through demonstrations and hands-on experiments, we’ll explore texture, opacity, suspension and the relationship between pigment and binder. This is an invitation to expand our understanding of natural colour and to consider the many ways our landscape can become part of a daily practice. You’ll leave with a series of material experiments and a broader palette of possibilities for future making.
VENUE:‘CLOTH.PAPER.CLAY’ 72 HYDE STREET, GUMBAYNGGIRR COUNTRY, BELLINGEN, NSW
COST: $220 pp / includes a nourishing lunch
GROUP SIZE: 8-10 people, 16+
DELIVERY TYPE: Indoors
SUPPORTED PLACES: 2 x available
PREREQUISITES: ‘The Art of Noticing’ session and ‘101_From Plants to Pigment’ session