Discover a low-toxicity alternative to analogue colour printing in this sustainable image-making workshop delivered by Hannah Fletcher, founder of the Sustainable Darkroom.
What to Expect
In this workshop, you’ll learn how to build layered, multicolour images using the cyanotype process combined with plant-based toners, a low toxicity alternative to analogue colour printing. By working in stages, you’ll create a series of unique prints, each one revealing subtle variations in tone, depth, and composition.
Using botanicals gathered from the garden, we’ll create textured, multi-dimensional images shaped by light, time, and material. You’ll also have the option to work with your own digital negatives to produce more detailed, image-based compositions. (Guidance on preparing these will be provided in advance.)
Throughout the session, we’ll explore colour balancing, calibration, and the preparation of papers and toners, developing both technical understanding and creative confidence.
What You’ll Learn
- How to create multicolour images using layered cyanotype exposures
- How plant-based toners can shift and expand the cyanotype colour palette
- Techniques for preparing paper and managing exposures
- How to balance and build colour across multiple layers
- Ways to combine analogue processes with digital negatives
- An understanding of low-toxicity approaches to photographic printing
Who Can Take Part?
Open to anyone aged 16 and over, whether you’re an artist, photographer, gardener, or curious beginner.
No prior experience is needed. The workshop is suitable for those new to cyanotype as well as those looking to expand their practice into colour and more experimental processes.
About the Host
Image Copyright Josefina Astorga
Hannah Fletcher is a UK-based visual artist working primarily with analogue photography. Her practice explores experimental and sustainable approaches to photographic processes, often rethinking how materials are sourced and used.
She is the founder of The Sustainable Darkroom, a charity and global community dedicated to researching and sharing low-toxicity photographic techniques. She also co-directs the London Alternative Photography Collective, which supports collaborative and experimental practice.
In line with OmVed Gardens’ 2026 theme, Listening as Care, her work is grounded in learning from both human and more-than-human worlds, exploring the relationships between materials, making, and ecology.
https://www.hannahfletcher.com/ @hfletch https://sustainabledarkroom.com @sustainabledarkroom
About OmVed Gardens:
OmVed Gardens is a garden, exhibition, events, and learning space in North London dedicated to exploring the connections between food, ecology and creativity for health and climate resilience. We are on a mission to inspire ecological awareness and action, and deepen our understanding of interconnectedness with the natural world.
As a registered Community Interest Company, all our activities prioritise social and ecological objectives. Whether collaborating with chefs, creatives, gardeners, or schools, OmVed Gardens is a hub for education, connection, and action. We aim to inspire individuals and communities to reimagine their role in building a healthier, more resilient world.
We work to increase biodiversity - of species, seeds, food systems, and participation, through regenerative gardening, seed saving, habitat creation, and ecological education. Our space serves as a living example of how urban areas can be transformed into thriving ecosystems that support both human and non-human communities.
Sign up for our monthly newsletter for tips from the garden and kitchen and hear about our upcoming activities:
www.omvedgardens.com · @omvedgardens
Subsidised Tickets:
We have a few reserved tickets at a subsidised rate. If this workshop is not monetarily accessible, please write to us at events@omvedgardens.com to avail yourself of a subsidised ticket rate. Subject to availability.
Refund Policy
Tickets are non-refundable, except in cases where an event is sold out and a waiting list exists for the session. Refund requests can be made up to 10 days prior to the session. Please write to us for any refund inquiries.
