The NATURAL INK. Course
The NATURAL INK. Course
Part botanical ink-making course, part community. Part invitation to spend more time outdoors and connect to land, plant and place. Part guidance and support in making art and a life by hand. Part radical and sacred space for care and reciprocal dialogue with the other-than-human world. Part slow, elemental fortification. Part space for play, experimentation, mess, delight and joy.
Full welcome to the NATURAL INK. course and community.
This is a new and emerging space for creative connection with the other-than-human and human world. For nature lovers, feelers, thinkers, organic artists, activists, makers and the colour curious. The compilation of botanical ink-making lessons and projects here is an experiment in sharing the joy of making slow colour by hand from respectfully found and foraged materials, plants and metals.
Here we centre nature dialogue within the inner and outer landscapes rather than nature dominance perpetuated by outer and internalised systems of oppression.
We are living through a crescendo of poly-crises, experienced in our personal and collective lives on a planet that is showing clearly the signs of strain humans have provoked. In centring our nature connection through practices such as….
walking and/or spending time in green spaces in rural and urban settings
respectfully connecting with and gathering from seasonal plants
making by hand
sharing our findings and learnings with others,
…we are tending that which is sacred to our life on earth.
Here we welcome with curiosity our longing to do what helps us to connect to body, land and place through the slow, seasonal and sensuous.
Here we go out to go in and turn inward to fortify our turning outward. We recognise and honour our interconnectedness with all beings through gentle acts of making.
Cyclic, collaborative, creative conversations with self and other.
Through this self-paced course, you will:
Learn how to make ink from found and gathered plants and metals for your art/craft practice.
Connect with the seasons and plants around you and explore working with your local places.
Learn how to shift raw plant colour with metals and modifiers.
Make your own collection of seasonal inks and colour-shifting modifiers from the places you walk and live.
Develop the skills to experiment with natural colour through the seasons and years confidently.
Be supported in carving out space for your nature-connection time alongside personal reflection through the seasons.
Root and refresh your creative life.
Connect to a deeper relationship with the place and plants around you.
Be warmly invited to get stuck into the process, try new things, get curious, and make a mess.
Learn new and meaningful skills to share with others in your community.
Be warmly welcomed as you are.
Who is this course for?
Makers/artists/crafters/creative noodlers: You may claim yourself as an artist, or you may cringe at the thought of doing so, but you make, you explore, you create things that weren’t there before, and you want to learn more about producing your own organic artist materials. The thought of incorporating a slower, less consumptive, more traditional craft approach to your work and play makes you feel excited.
Curious folks: You are drawn to process and to ask questions about what you find. You are driven by a curiosity about how things work and like to connect the dots.
Nature lovers: You feel the power in the natural world and are connected in some way to the cycles and seasons happening inwardly and outwardly. You enjoy spending time out of doors and are drawn to plants and the landscape around you. You may have favourite plants and trees you like to hang out with, and you are curious to learn more about them. This may not have much space currently in your day-to-day but you know that you benefit from time spent in the wild, whether in town, city parks, or rural places.
Thinkers/feelers/seekers/doers: You are affected by the ecological, social and political challenges you are witnessing in the world. You actively engage with tending to a more care-full community and world around you, in small and/or large ways. You want to nurture a regenerative creative practice centering ecological awareness, which also includes personal rest. You recognise that no one other person or group has the answer on how to do/change ‘the things’, and you are here for the active, messy inquiry.
What you will receive
An ink-making kit posted to your door with all you need to get started: including 5 x modifiers and binder, ink bottles and labels, a bottle of Copper Pipe ink, Hazel stick pen and pipette, Khadi paper, 10 x recycled card blanks and envelopes with 2 x UK stamps.
Self-paced online resource of step-by-step lessons on botanical ink-making to take and return to in your own time, with downloadable elements to support offline working.
Deep dives into each aspect of the ink-making process from noticing, planning and plant gathering to using your inks on the page in different ways.
45-page Seasons + Cycles workbook.
Guided grounding meditation for body/land connection.
Resources and further in(k)inspiration from other artists and makers.
Access to open Padlet community space for sharing findings, asking questions, and connecting with other community members.
Invitation to pop-up live online community gatherings (Additional pay-as-you-go pricing.)
Cost
Introductory offer until 31st January 2025 - £110
After this, there will be tiered pricing costs available:
£120 supported place.
£165 standard place
£195 supporting place
The cost includes UK postage - please get in touch for a quote for international delivery. hello@kathrynjohn.co.uk
What you’ll get
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12-month access to online ink-making lessons and resources, with downloadable recipes and a 45-page ‘Seasons & Cycles‘ Workbook.
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12-month access to community Padlet space for sharing findings, asking questions, and connecting with other community members.
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An ink-making kit posted to your door with all you need to get started. Please note that the course price includes UK postage. Get in touch for a quote for international delivery.
What’s it all about?
About me
Making colour has formed a part of my creative and personal practice for the last 8 years and I have been teaching and facilitating in art spaces for the last 16. Sharing skills and processes has been a significant and much-loved part of my creative practice and I have brought this series of self-guided lessons and resources together, with huge creative support from my assistant Lotus, as a way to offer this knowledge in a spacious and accessible way.
For more about Karn head here and more NATURAL INK. insights head over here. I have been making the transition to using the name Karn over the past spell of time so while you will mostly see ‘Karn’ about the place, you will also see ‘Kathryn’ as well.
For any questions and to discuss any access needs that would support your engagement please get in touch at hello@kathrynjohn.co.uk.
Modules
This is a gentle step-by-step strolling journey divided into modules and projects PLUS workbooks to nurture your inner landscape exploring how to support cyclic creative practice.
You can see a preview of the ink-making lessons below.
Lesson 1 - Introduction
Meet Karn and their work and this community/course/ink experience.
Lesson 2 - Getting started with your kit
Start your deep dive into the ink-making process and familiarise yourself with your kit.
Lesson 3 - Plant Gathering
The first and most important part of ink-making is finding and gathering materials.
This can look like growing things in your garden, finding plants in your local park, foraging from hedgerows, and finding leftovers and peelings in your kitchen compost.
Lesson 4 - Making the Ink
How you make ink and how you document the process will be very much unique to you. Here are some basics to get you started on an endlessly delightful journey.
Lesson 5 - Using Modifiers for Colour Alchemy
Welcome to the science bit. Now we take a deeper and exciting dive into the world of modifiers.
Lesson 6 - Using Inks on the Page
Mark making, paper choices and expression - let your work blossom into artwork, writing and beauty.
Project 1 - Colour Tests
A project to help guide your next steps in presenting and experimenting with your colours.
Project 3 - Writing + Text
This INKspiration section introduces ways to write and make text work with your handmade colours in interesting and new ways.
Project 2 - Mark-making.
Including how to make your own stick pens. Extend your connection by playing with different mark-making tools, and making your own from the natural world.
🌱 Frequently asked questions 🌱
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For the mess makers and nature seekers. For folks who wish to live more in connection with the world around them. The other than human and the human. To live with care and curiosity, from the piece of land they dwell on.
For those who would like to learn about plants and ways of making their own natural colour.
Artists looking to use fewer biocidal chemical colours.
To those who are done with the heavily industrial extraction of our lands and want to continue to make a stand against this abuse.
Those who know that making, walking, being outdoors, exploring their handmaking and creative lives helps them to tend to their physical and mental health.
Crafters looking to learn about working with natural colour.
Nature lovers who cringe at the thought of referring to themselves as “artists” but would like to relate to their environment in a different way.
Those who teach and guide others in creative ways and would like to learn new skills.
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A warm invitation to come meander and marinade at your own pace for a full turn of the seasons. A whole heap of practical skills. A total refresh and rerouting of how you hand-make and create.
Permission to play and explore.
Insights into working in reciprocal dialogue with the other-than-human world.
The skills to make financially inexpensive, organic artist materials.
In depth insights into the process.
Support to DO as well as PAUSE in the natural ebb and flow of things.
Invitations to weave your learning into projects and communities that are meaningful to you, exploring how to share your skills and energy in care-full ways in the world.
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Ink-making kit sent to your door
Open access community space on Padlet for questions, sharing, and community support.
A plethora of lesson material to follow at your own pace.
First invitation to pop-up live Q+A community sessions.
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This is intended to be a 12 month journey so that you travel through the seasons and can slowly and spaciously gather, learn, make and connect.
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For the gentle, low-demand, cheerleading and support and huge permission slip, to carve out time to do what you love: spending time outdoors, learning about plants, making things, playing, experimenting and nurturing your personal and shared creative life.
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You can go at your own pace through the modules and access the Padlet space throughout.
The option online sessions (offered at an additional tiered pricing scale) will be available from February 2025.
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This offering is £110 as a special introductory offer until January 2025.
After this, there will be tiered pricing costs available:
£120 supported place.
£165 standard place
£195 supporting place
The costs includes UK postage - please get in touch for a quote for international delivery.
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The will to create, the curiosity to investigate the world and the rhythms within it and the ink-making starter kit that we will send you.
Plus an old saucepan, your kitchen hob and some plant material. All of the other bits of practical kit we will go into in the course and you can pick up as and when needed. I find mine at carboot sales, charity shops and hardware stores. You can absolutely do this cheaply.
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Do buy a book! Head to your local library and pick up all of the books. But don’t let that it be it. Learning through doing in real time with other folks brings a supportive accountability for us to centre that which is important in our lives. We are pulled in many different directions, and if you have read this far and the thought of having this in your life brings feelings of excitement, spaciousness, peace and possibility, then I invite you to follow that.
Get anytime access to our growing collection of classes, workshops, and exclusive content. New items added every month.
The cost includes UK postage - please get in touch hello@kathrynjohn.co.uk for a quote for international delivery.
TESTIMONIAL
Kirsty - NATURAL INK. Colour Community 2023.
“A great day spent diving into the art of natural ink-making. Kathryn is an amazing guide and holds a gentle space to explore foraging and making ink. A generous day filled with play and insight allowing you to explore and connect.”
TESTIMONIAL
Malou - NATURAL INK. Colour Community 2023
“I enjoyed the seasonal colour workshop with Kathryn so much! I loved spending the day playing and getting to know hawthorn and how different modifiers (like copper and rust!) worked with the plant. Kathryn is warm, friendly and welcoming, leading the session and guiding us, while giving space to let the process and play take the lead. Really recommend Kathryn's workshops if you're interested in natural colour and ink-making with the seasons.”