Discover our upcoming and past workshops below.
Reach out if you would like to schedule a workshop for your own group!
Experience the magic of natural dye with your own hands.
MAKING AND MOVING: A Tulum Yoga + Botanical Dye Retreat
Join us in Mexico on the Caribbean edge of the Yucatán Peninsula, where jungle meets turquoise sea. Tulum is part of the living Maya world: ancestral clifftop temples overlooking the water, freshwater cenotes beneath the limestone, and traditions of craft, color, and ceremony that Maya communities carry forward today, as they have for centuries.
Souljourn Yoga founder Jordan Ashley, PhD, and botanical textile dyer, Erica Kowalsky will guide a 5-day/4-night transformative journey at Najil Chak, a design-forward private art residence reserved exclusively for our group. This retreat blends yoga, botanical dye artistry, and cultural exchange - inviting us to slow down, engage with the land, and practice being present.
Days are shaped by sun and color: morning vinyasa on the mat with Jordan, afternoons drawing pigment from plants with Erica, jungle landscapes and fresh, healthy food. The retreat will include a day as guests of a Maya family on their homestead, a swim in a cenote, an afternoon at the beach, and a visit to engage with the kids of Los Amigos De La Esquina, connecting through yoga and art. It's an invitation to step back from the fast-paced world and reconnect with your creative source. We will work with raw botanical materials and organic extracts, learn from the plants that grow in this landscape and the people who know them best, and transform textiles into living color stories, a keepsake that carries the memory of the retreat long after you return home.
Our home for the week is Najil Chak (Na-heel Chak), a private art residence where contemporary architecture merges seamlessly with lush natural surroundings. A well-designed home is a work of art: six en-suite bedrooms across 29,000 square feet of curated indoor-outdoor living, a private wellness and art studio, tropical gardens, a pool, and a fire pit beneath the palms. Founded by Frank Wall and Karen Gutiérrez, Najil Chak is an artistic haven where nature inspires creativity, a sanctuary for embodied learning and intentional gathering, with a wellness studio inviting us to leave renewed and inspired. The residence's private chef prepares three healthy, freshly cooked meals a day, served across indoor and outdoor dining spaces. Long, unhurried meals in the garden are as much a part of the retreat as the practice itself.
In partnership with Los Amigos De La Esquina (LADLE), each participant’s $200 donation directly supports this Tulum nonprofit community center. LADLE has empowered Native Mayan and Mexican kids through art, wellbeing, environmental consciousness, and life skills since 2017. Most of the girls LADLE serves are between 12 and 18 years old and have few other safe spaces to express themselves in a free, nurturing environment fostering creativity, confidence, and emotional resilience. LADLE offers about 20 free workshops every week, year-round, and your donation will help sustain this consistent presence for the community. During our visit, we'll move through a yoga class with the group and create an art project together, side by side, making and moving together in Tulum.
This is a retreat of making and moving, slowly. Time to create with your hands, breathe with intention, and meet a community as guests, with openness and care. Like the dyes we'll draw from plants, the experience settles in gradually and leaves an imprint that lasts.
Botanical Bounty: Textiles + Teas
Join Crunchy Culture, Down To Earth Goods and Intentional Teas for an evening of natural dye and an herbal tea experience! Textile designer, Erica will teach us how to use food waste, flowers, and other botanicals to naturally dye our own tea towels. No experience is necessary; all materials will be provided.
While we wait for the dyes to work their magic, Intentional Teas founder, Shanna will share her herbal wisdom, a hand-crafted mocktail and an herbal tea blend with the group. We’ll also learn about the beautiful edible flowers grown at Local Leaf Farm.
Sunborn Gardens x DTE Goods Flower workshop
Join Lisa of Sunborn Gardens and Erica of Down to Earth Goods for a special Spring workshop! Create a centerpiece full of local blooms and learn how to print on a bandana using botanicals. The workshop cost is $110 per person and all materials are included.
Bundle Dye Workshop
Explore a unique natural dying method which uses steam to extract the color from the natural materials onto fabric. You will learn how to use natural materials including compost, flowers, and other botanical extracts to dye your own textile product using a method called the bundle dye method. All supplies provided.
Immersion Dye Workshop
Join me for an immersion dye workshop at Olbrich Botanical Gardens! You will learn how to make dye from natural materials, often made of food or floral waste and other botanical extracts. We will discuss how to create a dye bath and binding methods for your dyed pieces. You will also dye a textile product in the class to take home. All supplies provided.