Nina Nightingale's Charm School: Botanical Textiles and Prints

Nina Nightingale's Charm School is in session.

From silhouette portraits and hair reliquaries to postage stamp flirtation and suffragette tea parties, join curiosity artist and host Nina Nightingale in exploring history's most fascinating disciplines and their hidden origins! During each hour-long virtual live show, Nina will guide you through the basics of a specific craft, tell you about its often surprising importance in the cultural landscape, and take any questions that might come up along the way. Part Home Ec, part AP History, Nina Nightingale’s Charm School won't teach you how to be more genteel, but you’ll learn why crafting was never that polite anyway.

Gathering curious objects and collecting them is such an intrinsic part of human nature. Collections of plant specimens, along with their associated important data are called herbariums or "horti sicci." One of the oldest still in existence is from Italy in 1532, prepared by Ulisse Severini da Cingoli, an artist and herbalist who illustratrated and collected plants. In this, our one year anniversary episode of Charm School, we’ll look at some of the most curious plants and fungi in the world, pull some pages from vintage herbaria books, and then learn to create our own prints and textiles from local plants gathered in and around your own home.

Class Supplies, if you wish to work along:

Fresh flowers, leaves, and plant sections

Watercolor paper, card stock, or handmade paper

Cotton fabric

Hammer

Cutting board or piece of wood

Paper towels

Optional:

Boil your fabric in 4 cups of water, 1 cup of vinegar, and 1/4 cup of salt and dry before class

Other types of hammers like ball-peen, tack, or rubber mallet

Iron

Scissors

Tape