Materials Library: SOIL to STUDIO

The Materials Library is proud to showcase plant-based dyes from Sasha Duerr's Soil to Studio class and the CCA Oakland Campus Community Garden.

Sasha Duerr’s Soil to Studio course introduces ideas of Slow Textiles, Slow Fashion, and plant-based color using the Oakland Campus’ Community Garden as its source of materials and inspiration.Her work combines a celebration of culture, ethnobotany, creative reuse, sustainability, and an innate sense of place.The garden, founded in 2009 by Susanne Cockrell (Community Arts) and Sasha Duerr (Textiles), grows an abundance of plants for community and curriculum uses; Including edible, medicinal, and pollinator plants on the Oakland Campus. Many of these plants grown have dye and fiber producing byproducts. Students from Soil to Studio helped to harvest the plants and dye the materials for this display, and for the Material Library’s collection. Additional colors were obtained from plants growing throughout the Oakland Campus.

Image credits within the display: images of Indigo, Madder, Weld, Cotton, and Eucalyptus - Aya Brackett, photographer, images published in Natural Color",Watson-Guptill publisher. CCA Garden photos - Jim Norrena and Sasha Duerr, photographers. Joseph Angelo photographed the display.

A Dye & Fiber Seed Library, initially started in a collaboration between Permacouture Institute and Soil to Studio in 2010- was given a finished home in 2016 in a project created by CCA Oakland Garden Manager and student- Rosa Novak. The seed library has been generously shared with the CCA Libraries. Rosa is graduating this year, and the library is thrilled to be able to continue this project in collaboration with Soil to Studio and the CCA Oakland Community Garden, providing seeds to the CCA community. Seeds are available for planting in your own garden (ask at the Materials Library for details).

The CCA Community Garden grows three ancient primary dyes:

• Japanese Indigo- Blue
• Madder - Red
• Weld - Yellow

"Seasonal Color Wheel- San Francisco Bay Area"- By Sasha Duerr (Graphic Design Assistance Nicole Markoff- CCA MFA Alumi 2012)