Painting with Nature: Botanical Ink Making Workshops
Reconnect with the earth by learning to create your own paints from the world around you. Join our hands-on workshop in Bengaluru to extract vibrant pigments from flowers, fruit peels, and spices, and use them to craft your own unique watercolors.
Our instructor, Sudha, demonstrates the process of extracting pigment during a botanical ink workshop. Participants gather around to learn how to turn simple, natural ingredients into a palette of beautiful, earthy colors.
A group of participants deeply focused on their paintings during our botanical ink workshop. The studio is filled with concentration and creativity as everyone explores the unique qualities of the inks they just helped create.
A participant examining the vibrant colors separating in a glass during our botanical ink extraction process. It's a moment of scientific discovery and artistic wonder as pigments are revealed.
The raw materials for our botanical ink workshop. A simple plate holds onion skins and purple cabbage leaves, ready to be transformed into rich, natural pigments for painting.
A palette filled with freshly made botanical inks. The beautiful, earthy tones of red, orange, and yellow were all extracted from natural sources like flowers and spices right here in our studio.
A color chart testing the different shades of handmade botanical inks. Participants create these swatches to see the range of colors derived from sources like onion skin, pomegranate, and butterfly pea flowers.
An abstract painting created with handmade botanical inks. The textures and hues from marigold, bougainvillea, and butterfly pea flowers come together to form a unique piece of natural art.
A participant adds final touches to their artwork, with a bowl of snacks nearby. Our workshops are relaxed and friendly, with plenty of time for creativity, conversation, and of course, chai and snacks.
A pot filled with sappanwood, a natural ingredient used to create a deep red pigment in our botanical ink workshop. We explore a variety of sources to create a full spectrum of natural colors.
Sappanwood steeping in water on an induction cooktop. This is a key step in the ink extraction process, where we gently heat the botanicals to release their vibrant natural colors.
About Painting with Nature: Botanical Ink Making
The most surprising part of the session is realizing how many vibrant colors are hiding in your kitchen waste. You will spend the first half of the workshop simmering items like onion skins, marigolds, and sappanwood to extract raw pigments, so come ready to get a little messy and curious about the chemistry behind the color.
At Kānike, we believe art should be accessible and rooted in the material world. This workshop is not just about painting; it is about understanding the origin of your tools. We guide you through the process of pigment extraction, where you learn to transform natural ingredients into a liquid palette. It is a slow, meditative process that ancestral miniaturists used long before synthetic paints existed.
What you will learn:
- Pigment extraction: We teach you how to heat and process natural sources—onions, cabbage, flower petals, and bark—to derive specific hues.
- Color chemistry: You will discover how different modifiers, like alum or lemon juice, can shift the colors you produce.
- Botanical painting: Once the inks are ready, you will use them to experiment with watercolor techniques, applying the pigments to high-quality paper.
We keep our batches small, usually 6 to 8 participants, to ensure everyone gets enough space at the induction cooktops and dedicated time with the instructor. The studio vibe is relaxed, complete with lemon chai and biscuits, making it the perfect setting to disconnect from screens and reconnect with traditional, analog techniques. Whether you are an artist or someone who has never touched a brush, this workshop is designed to help you see the color potential in everyday things. All materials are provided, so just bring your curiosity and perhaps an old shirt that you don't mind getting stained.
Kānike Studio
We started Kānike in 2019 to share the joy of making. Our studio in Cooke Town is a space for analog experiments, where we welcome everyone to get their hands dirty and slow down with traditional craft techniques.
Explore other creative workshops at our studio
Find a craft that speaks to you, from printmaking to bookbinding.
More from Art & Craft Workshops by Kānike Studio
More services by Kānike Studio