Rebeccasaylorstudio

Rebeccasaylorstudio I'm Rebecca, textile artist and natural dye expert teaching and practicing my art in beautiful Petaluma.

08/24/2026

I finally did a weekend retreat at my studio entirely focused on natural color! Color has a memory. Especially when it comes from the earth and not a lab.
This week I had the honor of hosting a group of truly creative hearts for a retreat at Rebecca Saylor Studio at Barn 5400. We started by asking: “what’s your favorite color?” And then we went looking for it.
We foraged and gathered the flowers I’ve spent all year cultivating in my dye garden at the studio and were gifted the most gorgeous blooms from local flower farmer bloomstone_design 🥰 she brought us the rainbow to play with. Those flowers became our fabric paint. Everyone fell into a meditative state creating works of art on cloth.
I truly believe there is power in giving yourself space to create.
Day two we learned about the difference between pigments and dyes & how to transform color from plants into our own art supplies. We made watercolor and made ink from coastal redwoods. We used earth pigments to create colors of our own.
And then Even Howard came in and taught us the art of Japanese character calligraphy. She made lamp black ink, showed us the strokes, and we bravely put brush to fine art paper with the inks we’d made ourselves. 😱
A magical weekend nestled in the forest of Sonoma County. 🌲
If this is calling to you, send me a DM — I’d love to do this again.
rebeccasaylorstudio petaluma barn5400 sonomacounty japanesecharacters frompetaltopigment retreatlife

05/29/2026

Studio days… sometimes

04/17/2026

Craftcation!!!! Every year, I search my brain and studio to find something to share with the creative community at the magical land of Ventura. 2026 was the year of making watercolors from earth pigments. The class sold out. 42 people were on the waitlist. And I had a bit of a time in my feelings about it :)
For everyone who made it into the room — WE HAD THE BEST TIME. 🎨✨
First of all we had the best class volunteers. We had snacks (Trader Joe’s, obviously), a playlist with chill vibes, and two hours of making color from plants and the earth together. Every single person walked away with at least 6 watercolors they made from scratch with their own hands & contributed to a giant pile of community colors we shared and added to our collections!
It was an unexpected reward for this class, we all worked together and it’s one of my favorite things i’ve ever done in a class setting.
These moments are why I work so hard behind the scenes, testing my classes endlessly and observing how I can help make each lesson resonate. It’s all worth it the moment the room fills up and people start seeing their custom colors appear on the glass.
To everyone who was on the waitlist: Thank you for your patience as I navigated the overwhelming response to my class and I promise I’m working on bringing this to more of us in the future!
To my Craftcation class of 2026: thank you for your generosity, your curiosity, your energy, and for trusting me with your afternoon. You were the best!!!!
📍 Craftcation 2026, Ventura CA
🎨 Natural Earth Pigment Watercolor Making
makerlife naturalcolor pigmentfromscratch craftworkshop makersofinstagram naturalartist rebeccasaylorstudio coloralchemy handmadewatercolor workshopvibes

03/11/2026

Let’s make pigment & paint! What can be done with all the leftover dye baths? Come along this week in the studio to turn our dyes into pigments. Pigments aren’t soluble in water so we have to add things to our dye baths to physically change them. Once the dye becomes a pigment then we can make so many more art supplies! My current textiles are curing for the next couple of weeks so I’m filling my studio days with pigment making.

03/08/2026

First color forage of the season! Around here in the first part of the year we are covered in wild mustard blooms. I always wondered if they would produce color. On textiles it’s a soft green leaning yellow and as a watercolor it’s bold and vibrant! It’s so fun to get out in my local environment and find materials for my art.

Welcome to my new Substack series titled: Friday Field Trip. Join me as we journey to the English Countryside observing ...
01/23/2026

Welcome to my new Substack series titled: Friday Field Trip. Join me as we journey to the English Countryside observing and thinking about the color stories that emerge from this ancient landscape. Also excited to begin sharing some voice memos with you. The idea is that it’s a prompt for us to talk and think about things in n life that feel inspiring. Feel free to send me a voice memo in return! I’ve linked this Substack in my profile. Tell me your thoughts!

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