The Color of a Weed: Workshop/Citizen Science Project
Lisa Jevbratt and Helén Svensson
During an intercontinental workshop we will dye wool fabric with Broadleaf plantain and Ribwort plantain, Helén at her home in Stockholm, Sweden, and Lisa at her home in Santa Barbara, California. The participants are encouraged to follow along in their own kitchens, during the event and after.
We will work with plantain because it is a “weed” with an interesting story. Broadleaf plantain, which has been called “the white man’s footsteps,” and Ribwort plantain are non-native plants in the US, but native to Sweden. Medicinal and edible, humans have brought these plants with them all over the globe. Robin Wall Kimmerer, botanist and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, writes about Broadleaf plantain with affection in “Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants.” To her, plantain is a model citizen, a foreign-born who is not colonizing. It’s a generous and healing newcomer, who is listening to its new land.
Before the workshop participants who wants to follow along need to collect a couple of handfuls of plantain. For some it will be easy, for others harder. It does not matter if the plants are completely wilted after being hidden under snow, or just popping out of the ground.
If registering a week or so before the event, participants will receive small pieces of mordanted fabric, ready to be dyed, in the mail before the event (or after if registering late). The participants will be asked to mail their samples back to us (in an enclosed envelope), and to fill in an online form about the samples.
The workshop is the start of a collaborative database of colors from non-native plants and “weeds” from across the globe. The database, and the visualizations and maps generated from it, is a citizen science project acknowledging and utilizing the knowledge (whether it is chemical, botanical, artistic etc.) generated through extensive natural dying of crafters, in their homes and studios, all around the world.