Registration for this schedule starts on 03/31/2026 and ends on 06/02/2026
Participants must currently be 13 years to 119 years old.
Learn how to turn old t-shirts into eco-fashion using food waste items like onion skins. Artist Devan Horton teaches us how to collect, engage with the world more mindfully, and how to transform everyday kitchen items into free art materials that not only yield stunning colors but they are good for us, good for the planet, and mostly free. Each student will work with a provided thrifted t-shirt and take it through each step of the dyeing process including mordanting, creating the dye, and some basic tie dye techniques. Each student will leave with a fully finished shirt ready for everyday use, they will know how to turn leftover dyes into paints and inks, and leave with the knowledge of how to recreate these results endlessly from scraps from their own kitchen.
Course Description by class
June 4th 6:30 pm - 8 pm - Fiber and Mordants
Achieving success dye results starts at the beginning. Learn what fibers work best and different ways to prepare your fibers for dyes. Students will be learning these basics while selecting their own recycled fiber to work with during class. We will get to know our fibers and begin a mordanting process.
June 11th 6:30 pm - 8 pm - Dyes and Dye Techniques
We will learn the basics of getting started with a botanical dye practice with an emphasis on food waste materials. We will cover some of my favorite dyes to work with as well as some basic tie dye techniques. We will begin folding and tying our designs and begin the dye process using onion skins.
June 18th 6:30 pm - 8 pm - Turning Leftover Dyes into Paints and Inks. Studio Day with Projects
We will be revealing eachothers design work. I will give a demonstration on turning leftover dyes into paints and inks and the rest of the day will be given as studio time to explore adding paints and inks to their t-shirt designs and or cutting/modifying their clothing to create their own one of a kind garment. Students will also learn aftercare to extend the life of these pieces and we will recap everything again so they can recreate these results endlessly at home.
All Ages (Under 13 with Adult Supervision)
Devan Horton
Devan Horton is a Northern Kentucky artist who creates paintings with botanical dyes and handmade paints that promote awareness of our impact on our environments. Since receiving her BFA in Painting from Northern Kentucky University, Devan has crafted and promoted her artistic career by exhibiting in local and national galleries, most recently curating and showing in All Else Pales 2, an exhibition intersecting art, science, and community at Studio Kroner and a solo show, Tending Stems at the Clifton Cultural Arts Center as part of the New Woman residency she received last year. She has also completed residency programs at United Plant Savers in Rutland, Ohio in October, 2024 and through Friends of Black Rock, a conservation organization in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada in 2021. For the past two years, Devan has served as art curator for the Green Umbrella Midwest Regional Sustainability Summit, and in 2023 she was a recipient of the Kentucky Foundation for Women's Art as Activism grant. These funds were used to create non-toxic and plantable art media using materials like goldenrod and walnut for paint and handmade paper filled with pollinator seeds, which she then asked her community to create pieces of art that were then planted in a vacant lot in Bellevue, Kentucky. This lot is now a blooming pollinator haven. Collectiveness, activism, and a love of the natural world have remained steadfast themes of Devan's work.
With Fair Share Pricing, CCAC is eliminating the need for scholarship applications so that everyone has access to the arts and can express themselves. If you are unable to pay the full tuition amount, simply choose one of the provided scholarship levels. If you are in a position to pay more, we encourage you to select the Supporter Level or to make a donation upon checkout. You can find guidance HERE on which tuition level we suggest, but the decision is up to you — we will never ask for additional verification or paperwork
Support for the Fair Shair Pricing program comes from the Gerald H. Fitzgerald Scholarship Fund and contributors like you.
Ages 13+
Devan Horton
coming soon…
With Fair Share Pricing, CCAC is eliminating the need for scholarship applications so that everyone has access to the arts and can express themselves. If you are unable to pay the full tuition amount, simply choose one of the provided scholarship levels. If you are in a position to pay more, we encourage you to select the Supporter Level or to make a donation upon checkout. You can find guidance HERE on which tuition level we suggest, but the decision is up to you — we will never ask for additional verification or paperwork
Support for the Fair Shair Pricing program comes from the Gerald H. Fitzgerald Scholarship Fund and contributors like you.
Please contact Clifton Cultural Arts Center if you have any questions.