Paper Making With Sarah Grace Dye
Online learning on paper making with waste materials
You can enrol just the talk or the course, or join both for 10% off.
Artist Talk: Everyday Alchemy
Paper Making With Waste Materials With Sarah Grace Dye
An Online Talk on Tuesday 9th September 2025, 4-6pm BST
Join live or watch the recording.
Sarah Grace Dye is a visual artist who loves to work with the ephemera of the everyday, avidly collecting paper, textiles and objects that begin a storytelling journey. Through paper making, natural dye and ink making, drawing, cyanotype, stitch and origami she creates small but perfectly formed keepsakes that celebrate the materials they originate from and are to be explored, treasured and shared.
Making paper from waste materials that originate in the kitchen or garden has become a central part of her practice and in turn developed an interest in natural colour and dye making. Sarah says, “The joy of watching magic unfold in front of my eyes keeps me coming back for more and makes me want to keep experimenting and pushing materials as far as possible. I need to see with my own eyes what happens when two things are combined and if someone tells me ‘its not possible’ I usually think, we will see about that!”
‘The work I make using these papers will often contain another organic substance or object. I am always collecting things I find on walks. Maybe driftwood by the river, a fallen branch covered in lichen or possibly some seed heads or feathers. These things sit around my work space until that moment when a connection is made and an idea begins to germinate.’
Since finding herself stuck in Frankfurt, Germany, at the beginning of the covid pandemic her practice has evolved to almost exclusively using the materials all around, especially the things we discard everyday. This recycling practice has become the heart of her work for many reasons. Working from a ‘studio’ that consists of a space on top of the washing machine, has brought about restraints that have shaped her work and helped develop new practices and ideas. Now she also has a garden and shed to enable more experimentation with plants both for paper making and ink and dye experiments.
Join her as she unfolds the many layers of her practice sharing work and the stories and discoveries that accompany each piece.
Sign up before the 9th September to access the recording until the 10th December
Sign up to all the sessions for 10% off.
Paper Making With Waste Materials
A Two Part Online Course With Sarah Grace Dye
Two live online demonstrations: Tuesday 11th November 4-6pm GMT & Tuesday 25th November 4-6pm GMT
Join live or watch the recordings.
“Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.” — William Wordsworth
Reducing waste is an important part of life and part of our responsibility to care for our planet. Paper making, for me, comes from this essence of reusing and elevating discarded rubbish. Then finding a place for it and giving it a new purpose. That in turn ennobles the materials to become beautiful, elegant and desirable. Most of us want to be better at stewarding what we use. Making paper at home is one small way to re-use more and throw away less. At the same time gaining a unique, unusual and versatile product.
During this course you will learn how to make simple sheets of paper with the waste products from your own home. You will be guided through the materials and tools needed and shown simple and affordable ways to create. My aim is always to use what you have I hope your eyes will be opened to the possibilities all around you.
You will learn:
• To make your own paper moulds and deckles
• What materials to use
• How to create the best pulp for papermaking
• How to make a sheet of paper in different thicknesses
• How to make different shape sheets of paper
• What colours can be achieved
You too will become equipped with the techniques and knowledge to use this process and successfully play and create a very personal range of papers that will bring you joy in the making and a smile to the face of others as you use what you have made.
Week one - An introduction to paper making and its possibilities along with instructions for collecting and making the tools you will need.
Week two - A demonstration that will guide you through the paper making process from creating pulp to the dry and usable end result.
Sign up before the 25th November to access the recordings until the 26th February
Sarah Grace Dye
Sarah Grace Dye is a visual artist who loves to find a use for and beauty in the ephemera of the everyday. Working with these objects has become like an alchemic practice enabling a transformation to take place. She believes learning to use the materials that surround us is important and her ethos dictates that it is important to waste nothing, that everything has a purpose and unique attributes to be examined, explored, elevated and a new purpose discovered. In essence, to search out beauty and hope in everything. The resulting alchemic objects are to be celebrated, shared and treasured.
Sarah is a collector and uses papermaking, natural dye and ink making, drawing, cyanotype, stitch and origami to create work, often within book structures, that amalgamates these together to produce small and perfectly formed keepsakes that echo the essence of the materials and story they communicate.
Sarah is a firm believer that everyone has the capacity to be creative and she is keen, wherever possible, to provide the catalyst for that to be realised. Her belief in the freedom to play and discover ones own marks is central and she is constantly developing this area within her own practice.