Specialized Workshops in Color & Medium

We offer both hands-on and demonstration-based instruction in the production of paints for industry professionals.
We invite you to step into the workshop to explore the raw materials of our trade, transforming earth, plants, and minerals into professional-grade media.
Our curriculum focuses on working with the raw materials that we sell in the shop.

Classes by Roger and Rachael:
- Hands-On Paint Making: Transition from raw pigment to finished product. We cover the physics of mulling watercolors and oils, focusing on load, grind, and binder ratios. All tools and materials are provided.
- Crash Courses: These demonstration based classes are designed to get you acquainted with foundational techniques and method. Each Crash Course focuses on a specific medium- gesso, watercolor, acrylic, and oils. After a Crash Course, you'll feel ready to explore making paint from scratch.
Workshops and Lectures by guest teachers:
- Natural Dyeing: An plant-based exploration of natural color theory, fiber preparation, and the use of mordants to achieve durable, light-fast results on fabric.
- Paper Marbling: A technical dive into the traditional methods of floating pigment, controlling surface tension printing patterns from the water's surface.
- Natural Pigment Processing: How minerals and plants are transformed into high quality pigments for painters.
These sessions are intended for those who want to gain a deeper physical understanding of raw materials. Whether you are looking to develop your own pigments or simply want to know why certain paints behave the way they do, our workshops provide the technical foundation to expand your practice.

Upcoming Workshops

A split-screen presentation showing a man speaking at a screen on the left and hands working with a small bottle and white material on a table on the right, with text banners at the bottom.

In Person & Zoom

Part 1: Grounds | Part 2: Water-based | Part 3: Oil-based

Crash Courses

Crash Courses are demonstration-based discussions (not hands-on) that aim to demystify the use of pigments and raw materials. Each Crash Course focuses on a specific paint application. We explain how different types of pigments behave in each recipe. Crash Courses do not have to be taken in order. CRASH COURSES ARE OFFERED IN PERSON AND ON ZOOM. If you are signing up, be careful to choose the appropriate one for you.

Our workshop area is on the basement level, and is only accessible by stairs.
We recommend taking notes!
20% OFF in-store purchases the day you take a class!
An archived video of this Crash Course will be available for 2 weeks.
A worksheet on the subject will be provided along with other useful PDFs on the topic at hand.

(click on image for the sign up page)

In Four Parts

Crash Course 2: Water-based Paints, extended
The first part of this Crash Course ended feeling like there was so much more to talk about. We decided to extend this subject and only focus on three binders: acrylic paint, egg tempera, distemper (animal glue).

The goal of this class is to make various acrylic mediums, demonstrate how to prepare the egg yolk, and point out the advantages of using animal glue distemper.

Leave this class with a better understanding of why you might want to choose water-based paints for your practice.

August 15, 2026 - 11 AM to 1 PM
Crash Course 3: Oil-based Paints
Oil paint made fresh is an accessible luxury. Working from dry pigments allows you to use pigments that are not commercially available (or too expensive) in tubes. Texture, opacity, luminosity, and drying times are all affected by pigment choice. The oil you choose also affects not just the drying time, but how much the painting may yellow as well. We'll start with basic paint, made in tiny batches, meant to be used on the day it's mulled. Then, we'll teach you how to make larger batches for storage in a tube or jar. We'll also cover oil-related additives such as siccative, aluminum hydroxide, chalk, stand oil, alkyd, and natural balsams.

August 29, 2026 - 11 AM to 2 PM

Crash Course 1: Grounds and Pigments Intro
Learn the pros and cons of all the different sizing/gesso options: Rabbit skin glue, PVA, acrylic gesso, acrylic-cellulose hybrid binder. As will all paint recipes, the ratio of binder/pigment/chalk will be emphasized. Many painters who use premixed acrylic gesso take the particular surface that it creates for granted, and are often frustrated with it. Experimenting with gesso recipes is an underrated way to change the entire look of a painting right from the beginning

New dates coming soon!
Crash Course 2: Water-based Paints, Part 1
The world of acrylics can be confusing because there are so many options. We’ll go over the vocabulary of acrylic mediums: pigment absorption, dilution ratios, flexibility, consolidation, gloss, viscosity. Watercolor and other water-based binders will also be discussed. Making paints into watercolors is a fairly straight-forward method that requires attention to the character of each pigment to get it right.

New dates coming soon!

(New dates coming soon) Marbling With Handmade Paint w/ Sheryl Oppenheim

6/20 "Marbling With Handmade Paint" Hands-On Workshop

$325.00

7/25 "Marbling With Handmade Paint" Hands-On Workshop

$325.00

ABOUT THIS CLASS:

Participants Will:

Learn how to mix handmade marbling paint from dry pigments
Learn the physics of using a marbling tray
Practice making stone and shell patterns with handmade paint
Make 10-15 sheets of marbled paper

About the class:

This immersive full-day workshop is split in two parts, with a break for lunch. All materials and tools are provided. In the morning session, you will learn how to make handmade paint according to the 19th-century Fichtenberg recipe. This recipe was originally translated by Garrett Dixon and then re-published and taught by Dan and Regina St. John (of Chena River Marblers) in their manual “Contemporary Classic Marbling.” Each student will be responsible for mulling 1-2 paints to share with the rest of the class.

The afternoon session will be an introduction to paper marbling using the paints you made. The class will focus on making stone patterns, as well as the shell pattern, a variation of the stone pattern, which can be made by adding oil to the paints. Each student will have their own tray to work in. Depending on working speed and complexity of the patterns, participants will make 10-15 sheets of 12x15’’ marbled paper.

*There may or may not be leftover paint, but if you are interested in taking a small amount of paint home with you, please bring your own small (2-4oz) lidded jars.

*Wear studio clothes and/or an apron.

*Please note that rabbit skin glue and ox gall are used in these marbling methods, and cannot be substituted to make vegan recipes.

*This class takes place in our mezzanine workshop area, which is only accessible by a flight of steps.

About the instructor:

Sheryl Oppenheim was born in 1983, raised in Orlando, Florida, and now lives in New York City. She is a paper marbler and maker of illegible books, an idea she first became interested in after seeing the work of Bruno Munari, and through her proximity to books, bookbinders, and marbled paper at her first job in New York, at a bookbinding supply house. She began marbling paper in 2011. Her work is rooted in an aspiration to practice marbling techniques at the highest skill level, combined with a devotion to beauty, surprise, and feeling through color and form.

Her work is included in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Watson Library, the Museum of Modern Art, the Walker Art Center, the New York Public Library, the Brooklyn Museum, the National Gallery of Art Library, and the National Museum of Women in the Arts, among others. She was included in Pattern and Flow: A Golden Age of American Decorated Paper 1960s to 2000s, published by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2022, as one of a new generation of artists who are carrying forward the tradition of paper marbling in America.

All images courtesy of Sheryl Oppenheim