2026 Black Cat Makerie : Tiny Tea Stories with Ruby Silvious

TINY TEA STORIES WITH RUBY SILVIOUS

The heart of this retreat is reimagining limits — turning remnants of daily ritual into canvases for innovation and self-discovery.

Discover the beauty of small-scale creativity as we transform unassuming tea bags into soulful works of art. Through inviting, approachable hands-on painting exercises, we’ll explore new forms of self-expression on these non-traditional, unexpected canvases.  Together, we’ll learn to see familiar objects differently—transforming tea cups into playful studies, turning our favorite personal tops into whimsical ‘tea shirt’ Concertina books, and creating floral tea bag collages adorned from wooden spools. For participants who like to sew, there will be an option to hand stitch flowers or a design of choice onto the muslin tea bags.

This retreat welcomes all levels of experience, from those who have never painted before to those seeking a fresh way to reconnect with their creativity. Working with tea bags as our foundation invites us to shift how we see the world around us ~ a reminder that ideas can emerge from the most ordinary materials and things we touch and use every day.

By the end of our time together, we’ll carry home not only a collection of varied tea bag paintings, but also a sense of calm, curiosity, and inspiration for the art of transforming everyday objects. Let a humble tea bag become a tiny world of possibility. 

THE VENUE: BLACK CAT FARM

Black Cat Farm ~ a place where all are welcome and the seeds of hope surround you. Nestled among the rolling fields just outside Boulder, Colorado, this rustic working farm is home to our Black Cat Makerie retreats. Tucked away from the rush of the world, time stands still. The beauty here isn’t curated, but rather defined by the ever-changing seasons and the pulse of growth and possibility at every turn. No matter where you are coming from or which season of life you find yourself in, you’ll feel the embrace of something so grounding and deeply authentic you might not ever forget it.

Using Black Cat’s Certified Organic farm as a source of creativity, Chef Eric Skokan creates an award-winning cuisine vibrant with seasonality. The kitchen draws heavily from the farm’s more than 250 varieties of organic vegetables, legumes, grains, herbs and flowers, as well as its large flock of heritage sheep and its robust population of heritage pigs, paving the way for a limitless palette of flavors, colors, and textures from which to build each food experience. The farm team devotes hours every day to harvesting ingredients, and then crafting them into outstanding dishes that mirror what is thriving in the fields. We can’t wait for you to experience it all for yourself!