Soaking in the Seasons - what to expect and booking

Dates: Four sessions, one sunday a month starting August 2024, then November, February and May
The cost of this workshop is on a sliding scale (pay what you can afford) of £650 , £750 or £850

What to expect:
A four part seasonal exploration for women, covering natural dyeing, foraging and nature connection.

Soaking in the Seasons is a collaborative workshop between Emma of Miscellaneous Adventures and Lorna Singleton Spelk Basketry, exploring nature connection in diverse landscapes through natural dyeing, foraging, traditional skills, creativity and seasonal celebrations.

Each season, we will gather in a new landscape to search out natural dye plants and learn more about the flora and fauna surrounding us.

Each location is carefully chosen so that over the seasons, you will encounter a huge variety of plants, fungi and wildlife. We’ll adventure together in forests, mountains, mosses and coastland.

After exploring and foraging our dye plants, we will return to our base to experiment with the material we have gathered, making dye baths and applying the dyes to a range of natural fabrics.

The fabrics we dye will be used to create textile pieces over the four sessions. We want this to be a community experience, working together to create beautiful things and as such the creative direction of our textile projects will develop organically through the sessions. To give you an idea, think wall hangings, weaving, quilting, sashiko and more!

Each session will be held around a seasonal celebration from the wheel of the year, starting at Lammas, followed by Samhain, Imbolc and finally, Beltane. We will make time in each session to learn more about each celebration, and hold our own ritual to honour it.

August - Mountains - Lammas

For our first gathering, we will be exploring the wild landscapes of mountains and valleys. We will have an indoor base (with outside space) to prepare this season’s dyes and we will be heading out into the fells to forage for plants and learn more about the landscape it’s history and ecosystems.

We’ll be celebrating Lammas together, which traditionally was a time to honour Lugh, the Celtic craftsman god so we will take the opportunity to celebrate our own skills with a small ceremony and fire.

November - Mosses - Samhain

November is the darkest time of year, so we will gather indoors to make our dye baths and experiments but venture out again into another new landscape to gather materials whilst the sun (hopefully) shines. Mosses are areas of raised mires (peat bog), and are a prominent feature of the Cumbrian landscape. They are home to a wide variety of plants and wildlife and even in early winter, we will have no trouble finding things to forage and experiment with. We may even be lucky enough to see the local Red Deer.

After a day of connecting and creating, we will gather around a fire to celebrate Samhain with warming, seasonal foraged teas.

February - Coasts - Imbolc

For our final session, we will gather at the coast. Winter will be coming to an end, but the days are likely to still be cold. We will have a cosy base with a warming fire and will spend a lot of this session working with the fabrics we’ve dyed, to create textile pieces of art. We will also spend time outdoors, exploring our natural surroundings and discovering what there is to be found in winter by the sea.

Our seasonal celebration will be Imbolc. A celebration of the end of winter, and of our time together.

During all the sessions, there will be plenty of time for experimentation, adventure and connection. We will be guided by nature, letting things unfold organically rather than sticking to a strict syllabus.

May - Woodlands - Beltane

Basing ourselves in a beautiful Cumbrian woodland in the Rusland Valley, we will prepare a fire to gather around, cook on and heat up our dye baths. For the first part of the day we will be peeling oak. A traditional woodland skill, bark peeling involves removing the bark from felled oak trees. The bark is traditionally used by tanneries to tan leather but we will use it in our natural dyeing experiments and the now clean, smooth oak we can use in our creative projects. After bark peeling, we will walk in the woods to forage other plants to experiment with before returning to our fire to prepare dye baths and soak the fabric.

The rest of the day will be spent learning about the woodland, connecting with our surroundings, checking on our dye experiments and finally, we will stoke up the fire and have our own Beltane celebration to finish our first day together!

We hope you will learn more about the Cumbrian landscape, plants and their uses, and traditional craft skills, as well as creating a beautiful item imbued with the colours of nature.

Who is this workshop for?
The workshop is for women who want to slow down and spend time connecting to the natural landscapes in the community of other women.

To be creative
To learn new skills
To form new connections.

Some level of fitness is required as each session will include a foraging walk in all weathers. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email us and we’ll be happy to help.

What’s included?
All materials and tools.
A Soaking in the Seasons journal and pencil.
A cooked lunch and plenty of hot and cold drinks, cakes and snacks.

What do I need to bring?
We will be in contact before each session to let you know of anything you might need to bring.

Are there any access issues?
Some level of fitness is required as each session will include a foraging walk in all weathers. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email us and we’ll be happy to help.

About Emma and Lorna
Emma is one half of Misc Adventures, she lived in the woods for 11 years where she taught workshops designed to encourage people to connect with nature and learn traditional woodland skills. Now based in Cumbria, she has studied ethnobotany and teaches foraging and medicinal plant use. Her background is in graphic design and she specialised in textiles and embroidered type.

Lorna is a specialist in split wood basketry and has been working and teaching in woodlands since 2010. Her background is in archaeology and social anthropology and she is interested in how people create a sense of belonging from land-based work and crafts. She enjoys sewing her own clothes and soft furnishings when she isn’t running her basketry business.

They are both passionate about sharing their knowledge and skills, empowering people to connect to the landscape and it’s history, and fostering a deeper connection to their natural surroundings.

Any other questions?
Please feel free to e-mail us with any questions and we hope to see you soon!

You must be 18 or over to attend this workshop.

Workshop T&Cs:
Please see booking page for full T&Cs