CraftED: Making Ink with Natural Manitoba Materials with Sarah Fuller
Workshop Description:
Learn how to use dye plants and plants from the Manitoba landscape to create your own inks!
Participants in this workshop will learn how to make inks from natural dyes like Coreopsis, Scabiosa and Black Hollyhock, as well as Oak Gall ink using materials foraged from the banks of the Red River.
Participants are encouraged to bring their own plant materials to experiment with and the workshop may include a short walk outside MCC to collect materials (weather dependent). Participants are also encouraged to bring a notebook to record the ink colours created during class, as well as to take notes during the ink making process.
Participants will leave with:
- Knowledge of the history of traditional ink making processes
- Understanding of material qualities of different plant dyes, binding agents, and how ph affects ink colour.
- Hands on experience of the ink making process
- Introduction to methodology for experimentation and note-taking for further exploration.
- Five glass bottles with five different inks created in class.
About the Instructor:
Sarah Fuller is a settler-Canadian artist of Icelandic and British descent who works across the mediums of photography, video and installation. She makes work about placed, local narratives and ecosystems. She holds an MFA from the University of Ottawa and a BFA from Emily Carr University.
Recent exhibitions include Submersed Landscapes at Gallery 881 (Vancouver), Remold at the C2 Centre for Craft, Redesigning Paradise at the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies with artists Mary Anne Barkhouse, Dianne Bos and Penelope Stewart, and Terra Incogknita at PLATFORM centre for photographic + digital arts. Sarah’s work is in public and private collections including the Canada Council for the Arts Art Bank, the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, the Walter Phillips Gallery, the Indie Photobook Library and Global Affairs Canada.
She works as a Photography Instructor at the University of Manitoba in the winter, and spends her summers as an Apprentice Hiking Guide in the Canadian Rockies where she shares her knowledge of local plants, geology and human history.
Workshop Runs:
September 19th | 11:00 – 5:00pm
In-person at the C2 Centre for Craft
Registration: $115 (registration is non-refundable)
Materials Provided:
- Shared access to plant materials to make ink during the ink making process, including natural plant dyes grown in the artist’s garden and oak galls collected from the shores of the Red River.
- Five 15ml glass bottles to store finished inks
- Shared access to salt, vinegar, cardamom pods, iron, lemon juice, and Gum Arabic during the ink making process.
Registration deadline: September 9th, 2026
Register Online: Purchase your ticket here!
