A hands-on eco-art workshop series to explore the land of Hadleigh Country Park.

Workshop 1: Cyanotype printing, rewilding, and biodiversity

In the first art-making session of this series, we’ll use an early form of light-sensitive printmaking to capture images of local plants.

Cyanotype is one of the earliest forms of photographic printmaking, invented in the 1840s and historically used for making blueprints. It works by placing items on a piece of paper or fabric that has been treated with light-sensitive chemistry. The paper is then exposed to the sun, and the UV turns everything it touches blue, while everything that's protected from the sun stays white.

First join us for a walk around Hadleigh country park exploring their rewilding project, the stories held by the land and collect plants to use for printing. As we collect plants we will discuss their culinary, medicinal uses as well as their fascinating histories.

It's a beautiful way of working with the sun and flora, preserving a small piece of summer for you to keep.

We’ll return to the workshop space next to the Tea Rooms where you’ll learn how to make cyanotype prints of the plants we’ve collected on fabric/totes, which you can take home to frame, or incorporate into a sewing project.

If you would prefer to skip the walk and just join us to make the prints or if you have any questions, just let us know when you register, or send an email to cathartart@gmail.com.

We will meet at the Hub which is just behind the Hadleigh bike park carpark. For more details on location or for any updates and changes please keep an eye on your emails once you've booked!

Superseeded is an ongoing artistic exploration of Hadleigh Country Park in collaboration with Hadleigh Farm Estate. The site holds many years of history, from the 13th century when Hadleigh Castle was built as a site of strategic defense, to the establishment of the Salvation Army Farm Colony in the late 1800s, to use of the Hadleigh farm lands for an anti-aircraft battery during WW2.

Now, much of the land is being returned to nature as farmland is turned into wetland, and grazing native breed livestock is used to create habitat for lapwings, dragonflies, and skylarks.

This workshop series explores the results of the rewilding efforts which have turned fallow farmland into species-rich grassland, flower rich margins, and traditional orchards. We’ll share artistic techniques and wise practices for engaging with local wildlife and materials in ways that give you a hands-on creative experience with the land.

For more information on the Superseeded project, check out the website.

Description supplied by the event organiser.