1-1 Mentoring

Caroline Ross is an artist, writer and teacher living by the sea in Bournemouth. Her debut book ‘Found and Ground: A Practical Guide to Making your own Foraged Paints’ was published by Search Press in June 2023. She is writing the follow up about ancient and foraged drawing materials, ‘Drawn From the Wild’ to be published spring 2025. Using what nature provides and repurposing what humans discard are a large part of her practice. After the rooks have feasted on the riverbank, the empty mussel shells become paint palettes. The seasonally moulted flight feathers of local swans and geese become quill pens and brushes. Chalk dug out from their setts by badgers is left in piles in the woods, where she gathers it and take it home to make gouache. Caroline makes paints from foraged earth pigments from around the UK, and art tools and inks from natural, wild, and found materials such as oak galls, rusty nails, elderberries, bay leaves and cherry tree gum. The natural fluctuations of materials and the botanical ink stains or ochre paints forming prepared grounds on paper, all suggest forms with which she works.

Why Are You Interested In Offering Mentoring?

I have been mentoring artists via institutions at MFA level, in groups, and one to one, regarding a huge variety of art practices for about 7 years, both in person and remotely via Zoom and email. It is an honour to be able to help people develop their art practice, share insights into integrating natural art materials and to be a confidential sounding board for their creative process. Diverse reasosns people have sought me out include: finishing their art or craft based book, preparing for a degree show, removing plastics from their art practice, deepening their connecting with personal cultural or ancestral threads, having a reliable 'crit' that isn't based only on 'Art-School' Post-Modernist assumptions but includes insights from much older human history as well as the non-human world... I greatly look forward to the conversations and questions that arise when we put our heads, hearts and hands together to make art.

Mentoring Specialisms

I am happy to mentor about any aspects of natural art materials where I have good experience, particularly those in my books. I am also interested in creating art practices outside the academy or mainstream, developing livelihoods that don't harm Earth or each other, and the integration of practical life with one's philosophical or spiritual path.

General Availability

Monday to Friday

9am-1pm, 2pm-5pm, GMT

Greta Desirèe Facchinato (IT/LU) is a research-based multidisciplinary artist and designer. She holds a Masters in Artistic Research from KABK Den Haag (NL) and a Batchelors in Visual and Performance Arts with a specialization in Sculpture from Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia (IT). Through the crossflow of different mediums and the investigation of daily life encounters, gestures, and materials her practice invites us to experience matter from an embodied awareness. She runs a studio focused on research and sustainable education through natural materials, illustration and creative workshops. In 2021 with her project Colour is Alive she researched organic ink making for screen printing. Since then she is been working with the knowledge of color and the interconnection with our environment through the practice of making sustainable ink for printing techniques.

Why Are You Interested In Offering Mentoring?

I’m drawn to mentoring because I find it inspiring to follow other artists' projects and offer guidance grounded in my experience. I believe in sharing knowledge—especially around ecological and craft-based practices that connect past traditions with future possibilities.

Mentoring allows for deeper, more focused exchanges than group teaching. It’s a space to dive into specific questions, refine techniques, and develop personal work with clarity and intention.

With years of experience teaching sustainable, bio-based ink-making across institutions and one-on-one settings, I bring both technical depth and a supportive, research-driven approach to each session.

Mentoring Specialisms I’m happy to mentor around sustainable, bio-based ink-making (both dye and pigment-based), screen printing, natural color processes, and sourcing/transforming plant materials into usable color. I also enjoy supporting artists in developing project ideas, experimental techniques, and finding ways to integrate ecological thinking into their creative practice.

General Availability:

Availability starting from April 2026.

– 9:00–11:00 GMT
– 13:00–15:00 GMT

Jacqui Symons is an artist who specialises in working with plant-based colour for printmaking and other applications. Her practice focuses on exploring the incredible range of colours that can be extracted from plants and how these can be used for both works on paper and works on textiles. With an emphasis on entirely replacing synthetic colours and art materials, she is continuously researching, testing and experimenting new methods and techniques for using plant-based colour. Jacqui works with artists, organisations, universities and museums to develop knowledge, learning and a deeper understanding of the possibilities of printmaking with plant-based colour. She established Slow Lane Studio in 2019 as a centre for natural colour research in printmaking using a sustainable plant to print practice.

Why Are You Interested In Mentoring? When I first started using natural colour and plant-based pigments for printmaking, I would have greatly benefitted from having a mentor that specialised in the subject and it was this that made me want to offer mentoring. I believe that having a mentor is incredibly useful (everyone should have one!) and it should be a beneficial relationship for both parties. Whilst teaching skills and increasing knowledge of natural colour is a large part of my work, I also want to encourage a greater connection and understanding of the practice, how to navigate the self-employed / freelance world as a natural colour artist and provide support and encouragement to people.

Mentoring Specialisms:

I can offer mentoring in areas including developing a plant-based practice, making the transition from synthetic colour to natural colour, using natural colour for printmaking (both on paper and textiles) and how to identify and achieve goals in your work. I am especially interested in fostering a sense of experimentation and the use of empirical research to develop your practice. Having the confidence to adapt, test and create recipes and approaches is fundamental to my practice and something I am particularly passionate about others doing. My aim is to provide support, encouragement, enthusiasm and motivation alongside honest and reflective thinking.

General Availability:

Any day between 8am and 8pm GMT- I'm happy to accommodate various time zones and days around those working.