Mapping Mugwort: Orienting to Place in Relation to “Invasive” Plants

About Facilitators

Calyx Studios is a multidisciplinary creative agency designing in collaboration with the world of natural dyes, led by Cara Marie Piazza. Cara is a natural dyer and artisan with 10 plus years experience. We offer natural dye applications and installations for fashion, interior design and the arts. We create one of a kind textiles only using natural dye stuffs such as botanicals, plant matter, minerals, non-toxic metals and food waste, transforming each fabric into its own unique story. 

By sharing this knowledge our studio believes we can help empower and heal with creative play. We offer workshops on the public and corporate scale for natural dyeing, curating unique experiences merging healing, color resonance and art. 

Objective

“A weed is a flower growing in the wrong place.” Most of us are familiar with this quote by George Washington Carver, but many of us still are blinded by the wall of green that permeates our cracked sidewalks here in New York City. Through an ode to one plant in particular, through this workshop, I invite you to reimagine the way you consider use, usefulness and belonging through harvesting Mugwort, Artemisia Vulgaris. Mugwort is a highly medicinal plant, it is a species that thrives in our urban landscape practically begging to be noticed and in relation with humans. ‌

Plants grow where we need them most. So it is no shock that in a city that never sleeps, populated with 8 million busybodies with insomnia, mugwort grows invasively. You can spot them pushing through disturbed ground in the cracks of parking lot borders, poking up and around gated parks,  practically begging us to take notice. Mugwort is aromatic, & astringent, and can be taken as a tasting tonic to aid in digestive issues. Known as moxa in Chinese medicine, its purpose is to strengthen the blood, stimulate the flow of Qi or energy, and maintain good health.

In this walk, we will harvest mugwort, observe and learn to be in relation with a plant we often overlook. By processing the plant as a natural dye, we will explore how working with the elements of water, fire & air, we can alchemize our relationship to place and map our locality through color. Mugwort contains flavonoids, a property that creates yellow for dyes, and when mixed with iron or rusted water, a cool silvery sea foam green – reminiscent of the silvery under belly of its leaves.

In this workshop we will:

• Take a walk and harvest mugwort. 
• Create a communal dye pot of mugwort
• Steam and eco – print mugwort on ¼ of a yard of peace silk 
• Make a dreaming bundle of mugwort 
• Provide a recipe for creating lake pigments for paint 

The Naval Cemetery Landscape (NCL) is fully operated and made open as a public space by Brooklyn Greenway Initiative (BGI) through the generosity of our supporters. Stop by and enjoy the NCL’s native pollinator habitat and contemplative memorial urban meadow and learn about the NCL and the Greenway and what goes into maintaining their beauty and accessibility for everyone!

Disclaimer

This will be a 2-hour, outdoor workshop.  In case of inclement weather, we’ll notify participants 2 hours before the start of our program.