Sunshine & Flowers

What a fabulous workshop to share as I revitalize this blog! 

Led by Deb Hertzel, All Abilities Garden, in South Egremont, MA, is a community garden program for anyone who wants to learn how we heal the land, grow & harvest food, use flowers & plants for dyes, and work cooperatively in a neurodiverse community. 

The garden stood out as a lush and flourishing buffet of color from the second I parked my car. Coreposis and sunflowers stood high above the incredible vegetable crops. This is a perfect place for a cyanotype workshop. Cyanotypes are one of the earliest forms of photography. Anna Atkins (1799-1871), a botanist and photographer famously used cyanotypes to document botanical specimens. 

​We began in the garden shed - with the windows covered to block out the sun from our UV light sensitive solution. Each participant coated their own paper and did a great job being flexible as we squeezed out of the doors to not let light in while they dried!

Participants went to the garden to gather leaves and flowers. There was such a variety to choose from! I challenged participants to choose items that had different leaves of translucency. They experimented with thin flower petals and thick leaves with holes chewed by caterpillars. 

​One of my favorite moments was using the cold frame cover (a recycled glass door) to hold down our prints while they exposed to the sun. 

Participants rinsed their prints in the farm sink - and ohh-ed and ahh-ed as I poured hyrodgen peroxide into each waterbath, rapidly oxidizing their prints into the characteristic deep cyan blue. Stunning!

We wrapped up the workshop by creating a collaborative cyanotype! 

Beautiful weather and beautiful prints!


Huge thanks to Deb Hertzel for inviting me to join this incredible community. I can't wait to visit again!

Follow @all.abilities.garden on Instagram!