Workshops
"Dyeing Wool with Invasive Plants:
Land Tending & Re-imagining our Sense of Place"
Instructors: Burl Wood and Elena Staley
Saturday, September 29th from 10 am-3 pm
UC Santa Cruz Arboretum and Botanic Garden
(Cost $50 members/$65 non-members) plus $15 materials fee
Scholarships are available
Ages 16 and up. Class size is limited to 18
Join us to learn about harvesting plants for color using fire mimicry and wild-tending techniques. This workshop will include both hands-on and lecture portions as we go over techniques of caring for and rehabilitating oak savanna and coastal prairie ecosystems.
We will discuss products and crafts that can be made from materials removed to enhance ecosystem health and use naturalized "invasive" plant species to dye wool that can be used for felting, knitting, weaving and more.
10% of the proceeds of this workshop will go to the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band. More info about efforts to protect their ancestral lands from proposed open pit gravel mining in the southern Santa Cruz foothills (near Gilroy) can be found at https://ProtectJuristac.org
The materials fee for this workshop will be donated to the Black Mesa Resistance Camp that is working to defend Dine’ (Navajo) homesites and sheep range land from coal and natural gas extraction in Arizona. More info about these on-going efforts can be found at https://SupportBlackMesa.org
View/download flyer for this event. (pdf)
Go to the online registration form and then go to the payment page.
* The number of participants for this workshop is limited to 18. So payment must be made at the time of registration to secure your place in the workshop.
If you are unable to make the class, notice of cancellation must be received by the office by 12 noon on Tuesday 9/25/18 to receive a refund. Refunds may take up to two weeks to process. No refunds will be granted if notice of your cancellation is not received by this time and date.
Burl Wood is a herbalist, weaver, artist, and musician living in Santa Cruz. Her philosophy is based on building relationship with landscapes, and understanding history, context and the layers of complexity that make up place. She maintains an herbal apothecary and small clinical practice. More info can be found at https://apocalypticherbs.com/
Elena Staley is an interdisciplinary artist, naturalist, and community organizer. She studies land tending, stewardship, and forestry techniques in the interest of creating and maintaining ecologies of resilience, both social and environmental. Elena currently works doing oak tree restoration and teaching in Santa Cruz and the greater bay area.
"Eco-Printing on Silk"
Instructor: Burl Wood
Saturday, October 27th from 10 am-2 pm
UC Santa Cruz Arboretum and Botanic Garden
(Cost $50 members/$60 non-members) plus $15 materials fee
Ages 16 and up. Class size is limited to 15
Using leaves, flowers, vegetable skins, mushrooms, nut hulls and roots, we will naturally dye silk scarves. Eco-print is a technique where plants are placed on silk and wrapped around a copper, iron, or aluminum pole and steamed in a hot water bath.
We will discuss using different dye mordants, harvesting and incorporating abundant local plant species, “recycling” food scraps by dyeing with them, and how to imprint the shape of plants onto fiber. Everyone will leave with a dyed silk scarf they make themselves.
This class will include a short walk to identify particular plants, and classroom time designing and steaming our scarves. Please bring snacks or lunch for yourself.
View/download flyer for this event. (pdf)
* The number of participants for this workshop is limited to 15. So payment must be made at the time of registration to secure your place in the workshop.
To secure your space for the workshop, register & pay for the class, call the Arboretum office Monday-Friday from 9am-5pm at 831-502-2998.
If you are unable to make the class, notice of cancellation must be received by the office by 12 noon on Tuesday 10/23/18 to receive a refund. Refunds may take up to two weeks to process. No refunds will be granted if notice of your cancellation is not received by this time and date.
Burl Wood is a clinical herbalist, weaver, artist, and musician living in Santa Cruz. Her philosophy is based on building relationship with landscapes, and understanding history, context and the layers of complexity that make up place. She maintains an herbal apothecary and small clinical practice. More info can be found at ApocalypticHerbs.com
"Seed Nature Craft Workshop"
Instructors: Vincent Waring and Melody Overstreet
Sunday, November 4th, 2018 10am to 2pm
UC Santa Cruz Arboretum and Botanic Garden
(Cost $50 members/$60 non-members) plus $20 materials fee
Ages 12 and up. Class size is limited to 15
Come gain hands-on experience with seed saving, learn strategies for habitat restoration, and explore the life cycle of select native plants.
- observe and make field sketches of plants in the garden
- learn how to winnow seeds (separating seed from chaff)
- take home a collection of native seeds to start a garden
- print a silkscreen image on a seed-collecting bandana that shows the life cycle of four select native plants
View/download flyer for this event. (pdf)
* The number of participants for this workshop is limited to 15.
To secure your space for the workshop, register & pay for the class, call the Arboretum office Monday-Friday from 9am-5pm at 831-502-2998
If you are unable to make the class, notice of cancellation must be received by the office by 12 noon on the Wednesday prior to receive a refund. Refunds may take up to two weeks to process.
No refunds will be granted if notice of your cancellation is not received by this time and date.
Nature Craft Workshops are intended to help participants develop a skill using the natural materials around us. We hope you enjoy these courses and look forward to brining you more opportunities to learn and grow at the Arboretum.
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To Register & pay for the Seed Workshop (Nov. 4th) or Silk Workshop (Oct. 27), call the Arboretum office Monday-Friday from 9am-5pm at 831-502-2998.
