2024 SHEGROWS Makerie : The Seasonal Color Bouquet with Sasha Duerr

THE SEASONAL COLOR BOUQUET WITH SASHA DUERR
*no experience necessary

During two beautifully colorful and creativity-filled days, we’ll create a gorgeous natural dye palette with leftover ingredients from a farm-grown seasonal bouquet. We’ll learn how to forage floral hues from the plentiful gardens and explore natural dye techniques from the flowers and even weeds onsite. This two-day retreat will encourage and support the abundance possible through everyday sources, conceptual inspiration for curating color combinations, and practical routes to creating place-based and zero-waste natural palettes.

These natural color techniques and recipes can be used in an abundance of ways, whether in your own art and design practice, or to imbue your everyday textiles and garments with vibrant, meaningful, and unique colors through natural plant-based palettes.

Exploring the practical and poetic aspects of plant-based colors, we’ll delve into the beauty of ‘slowness’ and seasonality, and quite literally the overlaps between slow florals and slow textiles. Our workshop sessions will instill the depth and possibility to renew the awe of the everyday, connecting us to the potential of holistic hues. Students will take home a beautiful palette of swatches we create together, larger sample textiles, a beautiful bouquet of ingredients to create dyes at home, as well as a set of linen napkins and a silk/wool wrap dyed in our unique seasonal floral palette we create together at SHEGROWS Farm.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

• How to map and identify and forage for natural dye plants - including from seasonal sources and floral waste, medicinal plants, plus local and seasonal weeds.
• Cooking with Color techniques to make beautiful natural dyes from scratch.
• Modifying and expanding our color palettes. 
• Surface design techniques
  • Shibori Techniques
  • Steam Printing + Bundle Dyeing
  • Direct Application for Printing and Painting  
• How to create an installation for an immersive slow food and slow textile event.
• Regenerative and circular design methods - overlapping slow food and slow fashion and textiles.

VENUE

After a decade of starting community agriculture projects like community gardens and school gardens, Gina Schley founded SHEGROWS to grow and design flowers professionally for weddings, CSA’s, and wholesalers across the Frontrange. She is the founder of Rose Roots Community Garden in Arvada, the largest community garden in the State of Colorado. Gina is an alumni of Floret’s Flower Farming Workshop and was highlighted in their Farmer-Florist E-Book on the top up-and-coming farmers in the nation. She can be seen on multiple news stations sharing her gardening knowledge, has numerous online courses, and she and her husband can be seen hosting the award-winning PBS and Create TV docuseries called Urban Conversion.

CUISINE

We believe that the food we put in our bodies nourishes not only our physical well-being but also our spirits. We choose our catering partners wisely and thoughtfully and are grateful to work with Gaucho Parrilla, an Argentinean-influenced concept from chef Oscar Padilla. The special combination of locally sourced ingredients prepared with love and cooked over a wood-fired grill makes for a beautiful food experience we can’t wait to share with you. Chef Oscar got his start at The Club de Banqueros in Mexico City, and then worked with celebrity chef Richard Sandoval. While working with Sandoval, Chef Oscar helped open numerous restaurants and train culinary teams around the world, including in Doha, Dubai, Chicago, and Costa Rica. In February 2023, Chef Oscar showcased his cooking skills on national television by winning an episode of the Food Network’s popular show “Chopped.” His Freedom Street Social spot Gaucho Parrilla serves brunch, lunch, and dinner.