Natural colours and stone paper: self-sufficient creativity from the garden

Looking for pens that wipe off Infinity Stonepaper cleanly, we ended up with sevengardens and plant colours. Colours that can be won from flowers with simple means look beautiful on the stone paper and dissolve completely again with a damp cloth. Perhaps we will soon be picking our paints in the school garden or on our own balcony.

Plant colours with a long tradition

At the Creativa fair in Dortmund we met Peter Reichenbach and the team from sevengardens. For many years the network has been working to make old plant dyeing techniques available again: with the simplest of means they yield colours and pigments from flowering plants.

Then came the moment of shared delight, because natural colours hold excellently on Infinity Stonepaper and can be washed off completely again with a damp cloth. The same goes for the Frixion pens from Pilot. That was exactly what we had been looking for.

The potential of this discovery feels enormous. Around 1300 plants worldwide are documented as dye plants. Forest garden, herb spiral, historic garden or balcony box: colours can be planted almost anywhere. The sevengardens network spreads the knowledge about plant based colours and supports local communities in setting up their own dye gardens (more on this at www.sevengardens.eu).

A dye garden offers room for educational programmes and creative workshops. Schools and social institutions make their own plant colours and use them in art projects and in lessons. At the same time this strengthens the awareness of protecting natural resources. In this way the garden becomes a place of shared learning where people of every age and background come together.

A hot topic for education worldwide

Better educational opportunities worldwide are one of our main drivers for Solarpunk NOW. That is why we are bringing rewritable writing and painting surfaces into the world with Infinity Stonepaper, and reusable construction experiences with Beenius.

Many schools want material that lasts. Reusable learning tools deliver exactly that: bought once, they accompany lessons for years.

Schools make their colours themselves from local plants, preserve them and use them all year round. That keeps them independent when it comes to material and keeps the costs manageable. Learning tools are then available in abundance.

Handling stays as familiar as ever: write, paint, wipe off, just like on a whiteboard. The colour comes from plants, the surface is the Infinity Stonepaper.

The combination is a gain for everyone. Art therapists hold their sessions almost anywhere, schools establish their own colour cycle on their grounds and teach children the basics of botany and ecology along the way.

Infinity Stonepaper at a glance

• 60 percent calcium carbonate and 40 percent HDPE
• 450 g/m², produced in a dry extrusion process
• wipeable and rewritable
• tear resistant and waterproof
• Cradle to Cradle Certified Silver for the material
• disposal via the residual waste

New possibilities for art therapy

Art therapy uses a great deal of material. The process itself is at the centre: people concentrate on the making, express emotions through art and come closer to deep emotional themes along the way.

With natural colours and Infinity Stonepaper in a small case, workshops happen anywhere. A few materials are enough for an abundance of creative snapshots, and a damp cloth resets the surface. Plant materials also strengthen the connection to nature, which helps in many therapeutic settings.

That is how paper and pen grow into a far more intense experience.

Colour by colour and plant by plant, this is how we bring more natural creativity into the world.

Help us spread the word

We dream of a colourful future with dye gardens as far as the eye can see, and of people all over the world unfolding their creative potential.

Help us spread the word. Try it out yourself, play with the colours and with the possibilities that grow from them. Perhaps you can think of people who would find this idea exciting: feel free to pass this article on to them.

We are always glad to hear your spontaneous thoughts and ideas.