Foraging and Extracting Natural Dyes in California
Join Linda Illumanardi in Los Angeles as she shares her most recent explorations in the foothills of the San Gabriel foothills in Los Angeles. Linda bases her selections on pigment and tannin content, seeking a stable dye on both protein and cellulose fibers. Linda will share her processes of extraction and testing while also presenting the results of these experiments.
Linda Illumanardi was born and raised in the mountains of Vermont, toddling behind her grandmother reciting the names of local weeds, flowers, and trees. Now in California, she does the same thing with her 3 grandsons, basket in hand, gathering gently leaves from trees that become the content and design of her books, fabric, and ceramics. Linda began eco-printing on paper, to accompany her handmade book designs (artist book limited edition Otis College, Los Angeles, CA 2001, published in Lark 500 Handmade Books, second edition, 8 collagraph plates).
With a Master’s degree in painting, and multitudes of printing classes and residencies, Linda loves to make impressions in each environment that she visits. She states, “Whether in the mountains, forest, at the ocean, or in the high desert, there are always multitudes of textures, colors, and natural objects waiting to be immortalized.”
Wanting to expand her explorations, Linda naturally shifted to making botanical prints on silk and wool, cotton fibers, leather and ceramics, working as a mad scientist in her quiet studio in the foothills of the Angeles National Forest on the outskirts of a horse stable. Linda is clearly an artist in each world she inhabits. She loves testing local botanicals for natural dyes and tannins.
Linda has been teaching since 1987 for public, private, and charter schools, as well as writing curriculum and teaching out of her home studio for artists ages 3-83. Please see her lifestyle and work on her public Instagram account at linda.illumanardi .
This will be a ZOOM meeting at 10 am on Saturday, April 2nd. The ZOOM link will be posted closer to the date or CONTACT us for the link.