The true Colour of the Cotinus on fabric, online workshop

Join me for an online live Botanical printing workshop on fabric using Cotinus leaves to create blue prints. 5th Anniversary workshop

By Elisabeth Viguie Culshaw @ The Lansdowne House

Date and time

Sun, 4 May 2025 08:00 - 10:00 PDT

Location

Online

Refund Policy

No Refunds

About this event

If this workshop is sold out here you can visit my website for an alternative booking spot:

My workshops

This workshop is about creating beautiful blue Botanical prints out of the Cotinus leaves on cellulose and protein material. It will be live online using the zoom platform.

Botanical printing is creating monoprints using the pigment and colours that are present in plants and leaves. Using heat and water we transfer the colour onto mordanted cloth to create patterns. The result is colourfast and can be very beautiful.

This technique is suitable for beginners.

"The True Colour of the Cotinus" is a botanical printing method and a project I launched in May 2020 as the First Lock down hit the UK during the Covid crisis. It was my first online workshop and the idea was to connect with douzains of people at home who were isolated and craving creativity. We used the Cotinus leaves which are growing in many gardens and printed on paper for blue prints. Little boxes of paper, and mineral salts were dispatched when all shops were closed and together the whole of 100 particpants we connected to make blue prints.

5 years later many have used this method to create blue prints and I have learned a lot more about what I can create with Cotinus leaves. In this workshop I will share knowledge about this method and various tips to allow you to create great prints and analyse your work.

If you are just a beginner you will be able to get started in the wonderfully creative technique that Botanical printing is. I will work small scale so that you can have a go even if you dont have a dye studio.

In 2020 just as the Covid crisis was kicking in I set up this workshop online for the first time. It was my first ever online live workshop and it sold out. I set up a simple method for participants to work small scale at home using kitchen dyes, paper and leaves to create monoprings. It was glorious and we created some wonderful prints.

You will be able to print on linen or silk samples with great success.

This is an online workshop using the Zoom platform , it is safe and easy but you should have access to a smart phone or a computer/tablet before you book. No refund will be operated at anytime on the basis of lack of online equipment. You will be sent a link before the event to access it.

About one week before the event you will receive a listing of what you need for the workshop.

You can choose to watch live and print after the live event.

After the event you will receive an emailed PDF with the basic instructions together with the replay video of the workshop.

You will get to keep the method for 2 years.

If you have any questions you can email me on bettysbeautifullife@gmail.com

Organised by

Elisabeth Viguie Culshaw @ The Lansdowne House

I have a long history with working with paint and paper and recreating historic schemes in listed buildings. My love for contact prints has come from my travels in Asia. I work with Eco Printing, Eco Dyeing, Indigo Dyeing, Stencilling.

I love initiating creativity in my course participants. I am passionate about creating art in a sustainable way, I love reusing, recycling, I work in a circular Economy and makes the best of my local resources in Art with participants coming from the whole world.

I teach in person and online live using the zoom platform. I like engaging in long term communities courses/projects. As we learn to work with each other we create better projects... outcomes...

I currently work on two global/local projects based on Ecodyeing/printing :

#Theindigoplot circa 2021 is about growing Japanese Indigo small scale and dyeing from it as well as understanding the meaning of the Indigo production/vat. I grow Japanese Indigo in Scotland with a group of "Home growers and in the grounds of The Glasgow Botanical Garden. I also run a 9 months course "The Indigo diaries" with a group of online participants where we grow together before experiencing a number of ways of dyeing with our Fresh Persicaria Tinctoria leaves and our Indigo Pigment. If you want to register your interest for the 2023 group please be in touch by email bettysbeautifullife@gmail.com

#thetruecolourofthecotinus circa 2020 is about Botanical printing the Cotinus leaves (and new for 2022 extracting pigment from the leaves) ... created as an online project to connect hundreds of participants locked down at home in the spring of 2020 we have learned to understand our mordants and create blue out of our leaves... but also create beautiful prints out of just the one plant The Cotinus. In 2022 I will add the Euphorbia Cotonalia plant to the testing to welcome participants from the Southern Hemisphere. We will extract pigments to make printing paste and water colour. The group is supported by a FB page and has an ongoing outcome with regular short online workshops.

I have in the past been involved in projects with, The House for an Art Lover, Glasgow Museums, Granton Hub, National Trust for Scotland, The Willow Tea rooms Trust, a number of primary and secondary schools in Scotland. I run collaborations with local artists.

I will run private workshops in my studio or your premises for private groups (corporate excertises or hens parties ...)

In my workshops you will learn a creative technique and complete a creative project, you will go home wih a unique object.. you made ! Today you make your own future happy memories !

#Bettysbeautifullife