From 18–31 July 2022, nomadic gardener, forager and visual artist Michaela Casková was at the Narva Art Residency as part of the Kreenholm Garden project. Michaela explored the local landscape, plants and atmospheric events in through colour-making. She led workshops on dyes and inks from locally foraged plants and found materials to create a small colour code of Narva weather.
Read about Michaela’s experience in Narva below. Hereby, we would like to encourage artists living in Finland to apply for the Finnish Cultural Foundation grant for 2027. The application round is now open until 31st of August 2026. Find more information here: nart.ee/en/grants-for-artists-residencies/
Looking back at summer 2022, when I spent two weeks as an artist-in-residence at Kreenholm Plants in Narva, Estonia. During the residency, I led a couple of workshops exploring how the local landscape, plants and weather can become materials for making colour.
For “Weather-casting: making dyes and inks from local plants and found materials”, we started by leaving the garden and taking a walk through Narva. We foraged for plants and other materials along the way, paying attention to what was growing around us and to the particular atmosphere of the place. Back in the experimental garden laboratory, we transformed our findings into handmade inks and solar dyes.
Together, we gathered, cooked, soaked, experimented, shared, tasted and observed – creating our own colour code of Narva weather. The workshops became a way of slowing down and looking at the city through its seasonal materials: plants, water, sunlight, chance, decay and colour.
One of the simplest experiments we tried was solar dyeing – letting the sun, plants, water and time do the work.
Solar-dye recipe
Fill the bottom of a jar with a layer of plants and flowers.
Place natural animal yarn on top and cover it with another layer of plants.
Fill the jar completely with water, making sure all the plants and yarn are submerged.
Close the jar and place it somewhere warm and sunny, such as a windowsill.
Then wait – ideally for at least one month – before taking the yarn out, rinsing it and seeing what colour the sun and plants have made.
The process is slow and unpredictable, and that is part of the excitement.
Thank you to the Kreenholm Plants team, and especially Sille Kima, for the invitation and support; to NART for the wonderful hospitality; and to my co-residents for the kitchen conversations, shared meals and walks around this spectacular border town, former textile factory and long hours on the beaches. Two weeks, many walks, plants gathered, colours made – and a small archive of Narva weather carried home.
Find out more about the artist: https://www.nart.ee/en/artists/michaela-caskova-kreenholm-garden/