Textile Dye Garden

The Textile Dye Garden is an ongoing project located at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY

The garden serves as a resource for sustainability education and a hub for collaboration and experimentation.


The Textile Dye Garden is funded by generous support to The Hazel Siegel Textile Dye Garden Exploration Fund. 

The Fund supports the Institute's exploration of integrating a garden that will produce textile dyes with the purpose of 

supporting Pratt's curriculum and student experience throughout disciplines.  

Visiting Hours

Please check our Instagram for & Calendar for Summer Open Hours, Events and Workshops.


We encourage visitors to stop in and learn about the garden. 

Workshops are open to the public, unless otherwise specified


Pratt Professors please reach out to rgregori@pratt.edu  to inquire about class visits


Weaving Threads: Natural Dyes at the Intersection of Art & Science

Over the course of the fall semester, student scholar and dye garden member Ana Codorean collaborated with Pratt faculty to create a unit that on natural dyes that intertwined art, weaving, botany, ecology, chemistry, and technology. The project was funded through the Pratt STEAMplant Initiative. Learn more about the project here.

Indigo Harvesting and Processing

In October 2022, our team harvested and processed our Japanese Indigo into pigment. Learn about the intensive process here.

LES Girls Club Bundle Dye Event

Over the summer, the Textile Dye Garden hosted the Lower East Side Girls Club  (partnership with MoMA PS1) for a bundle dyeing event. Learn more here.

Clay-Resist Indigo Worskhop

We used our "Pratt Vat" (our hand-made indigo henna vat) to host a clay-resist workshop. Participants painted on fabric with clay and dipped in our vat. Learn more here.

Paper-Making Worskhop

One of our summer events was a paper-making workshop. We used recycled paper scraps and fresh flowers from our garden. Learn about the process here.

Lake Pigment Worskhop

As part of Pratt's Earth Action Week, the Textile Dye Garden held a paint-making event hosted by Professor Cindie Kehlet. Our team created Lake Pigments using our 2021 dried yield, and Kehlet demonstrated how to use these pigments to make paint using various binder.

Learn more about the process here.

Swatch Book Vol. 1 Now Residing in the Material Lab at Pratt

One edition of our Swatch Book Vol.1 can now be found at the Pratt Material Lab. This provides all students at Pratt with access to the swatches and information, with the hopes of expanding the use of natural dyes outside of the fashion department. Textile Dye Garden team member Ana Codorean (MA Art and Design Education '22) sat down with Sarah Burry (MSLIS/MA History of Art and Design ’23) to discuss the book.


Image courtesy of the Material Lab

The Case for Natural Dyes

The Textile Dye Garden was featured in an article in Atmos Magazine. The article highlights several artists and organizations working to promote the sustainable use of natural dyes in the textile industry.

Read the full article here


Swatch Book Vol. 1

At the end of our Fall 2021 season, we completed our first edition of our annual Swatch books. These books serve as an education research and archive of our annual harvest. A digital version of the swatches can be found here.


 A Campus Garden Flourishes with Flowers for Natural Dyes

Read the full article on Pratt's website here.


Dyeing with Stored Yield Workshop

Expert natural dyer Cara Marie Piazza led a virtual event in collaboration with the Textile Garden, were she demonstrated several techniques using our garden's 2021 harvest stored yield. Watch the full video here.


 Indigo Dye Workshop

On November 5th, 2021, we had an Indigo Dye Workshop at the garden. We worked with the indigo vat in two ways: dipping clay-resist screen printed bandanas, and itajime (Japanese resist dye folding techniques).

Learn more about the process and see our results here.


We took advantage of a warm October day to do some fresh leaf indigo dyeing in the garden.

Although the indigo was a bit past its prime this late in the season, we still were able to achieve some incredible results, particularly on the raw silk.

Pictured above is a sample of a bundle dyed fabric (using fresh flowers like marigold) that we overdyed with fresh leaf indigo.

Low Water Dye Workshop

Our first workshop at the garden was on October 8, 2021. Participants used low-water bundle dye techniques to dye deadstock cotton and wool.

Learn more about the process here.



Professor Gregorio's Material Manipulation class (Pratt Fashion Textile Minor) harvested a portion of the Japanese indigo from the garden beds and immediately set to work dyeing fabrics in the studio using a range of techniques. 

Black Walnuts foraged from Prospect Parks were processed into rich brown dyes for a range of yarns.


See images from the studio here


Learn more about Fresh Leaf Indigo Dyeing her


The Textile Dye Garden is only the second garden to exist at Pratt Institute. The first garden at Pratt was created in the early 1900s and served as an education tool for the teacher training program.

View more photos of the garden here.