Cyanotype Workshops

Small, hands-on workshops where you'll create beautiful botanical prints. No art experience needed.

Create vivid blue botanical prints using plants, light, and water. We’ll show you the surprisingly simple cyanotype process, then you’ll have plenty of time to experiment with different plants, compositions, and ideas of your own.

Each print is one of a kind. You’ll work with leaves, flowers, grasses, and other botanical materials, arrange them on specially prepared paper, expose the image to UV light, and then rinse the print in water and watch the blue develop.

Over the course of the evening, you can make several different pieces rather than putting all your hopes into one perfect print. Depending on what you decide to make, you might leave with botanical prints to frame, cards, gift bags, bookmarks, gift tags, or small pieces to give away.

No artistic experience is necessary. All materials are provided, and we’ll show you exactly how the process works before you begin.

We’re Eric Tepper, MD, a family medicine physician in East Sacramento, and Clary Tepper, PhD, a psychologist in Midtown Sacramento. These workshops are completely separate from our clinical practices. We started them because we wanted the kind of evening we would actually sign up for ourselves: two hours away from email, errands, and everyday responsibilities, learning something new, making something with our hands, and leaving with something we genuinely like.

We intentionally keep each evening small so there’s plenty of room to work, experiment, and ask questions. There isn’t a right way to make a cyanotype, and part of what makes the process interesting is that you never know exactly how a print will turn out.

Some people come with a friend or partner. Others come on their own. You can talk with the person next to you or become completely absorbed in arranging leaves on a piece of paper. Both are fine.

This isn’t therapy, professional training, or a networking event. It’s simply two hours to learn an unusual photographic process and make something you probably haven’t made before.

Why Spend Two Hours Making Something?

There is also good reason to think that time spent absorbed in creative activity does something different from simply taking a break.

Research on art-making has found changes in stress and mood, including reductions in cortisol, while longer-term studies have linked regular creative activity with aspects of cognitive health as we age. You don’t have to consider yourself artistic to benefit from the experience.

There may be something particularly useful about being a beginner: learning a new process, experimenting, paying attention to what happens, and not already knowing exactly how the finished piece is supposed to look.

That’s part of what we like about cyanotype. For two hours, your attention is on arranging plants, exposing a print, rinsing it, watching the image emerge, and wondering what might happen if you try something differently the next time.

For a little while, the rest of the list can wait.

From Cyanotype to Something You Can Wear (or Put on a Water Bottle)

A cyanotype doesn’t necessarily have to remain a blue print on paper.

The botanical image itself can be isolated from the blue background and turned into a clean silhouette, while retaining the shape and small irregularities of the real plant that made the original print. That image can then be used on T-shirts, stickers, phone cases, totes, and other objects.

That is how the botanical designs in The Snarky Ph.D.: A Study in Botanicals began. Every one started as an original cyanotype made with a real plant I collected, then was adapted into a simple botanical graphic.

If you take a workshop, it’s another direction we can help you explore with your own cyanotypes.

And if you have no particular desire to make a cyanotype but happen to like plants, understated botanical art, or the occasional dry observation about psychology and academic life, you can skip directly to the finished versions.

Browse The Snarky Ph.D.: A Study in Botanicals on Redbubble → https://www.redbubble.com/people/snarkyphd/shop

Everyone leaves with finished cyanotype pieces, usually a mix of notecards, gift tags, small prints, or gift bags.

Video of the process:

What is Cyanotype?

Cyanotype is a simple photographic printing process that uses UV light, water, and natural materials to create deep indigo-blue images. You’ll choose leaves, flowers, feathers, or other objects, arrange your design on treated paper, expose it to light, rinse it in water, and watch the brilliant blue image appear.

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Reserve a spot in October

What You'll do in the Workshop

Participants work with natural materials, light, and water to create cyanotype prints. No prior art experience is needed.

Choose from leaves, flowers, feathers, and other materials

Lightly brush cyanotype solution onto a piece of watercolor paper

Arrange your materials on the treated paper once it has fully dried

Clamp it under glass and expose it to sunlight or other UV light source

Rinse it in water and watch the image develop

Hang it to dry

Most participants leave with several finished pieces (notecards, gift tags, bookmarks, a small print, or gift bags).

Reserve a spot in October

Is This for Me?

If you're looking for a relaxed, hands-on creative evening, you'll fit right in. No artistic experience is necessary, and many people tell us they haven't made art in years—or ever.

Some people come on their own, while others attend with a friend or partner who has also registered. We intentionally keep each evening small, giving everyone plenty of space to work at their own pace and individual guidance throughout the evening. Conversation often happens naturally, but there's never any pressure to socialize. Whether you enjoy chatting while you create or quietly settling into the process, both are equally welcome.

This isn't therapy, professional training, or a networking event. It's simply a chance to slow down for a couple of hours, make something beautiful with your hands, discover a centuries-old photographic printing process, and leave with handcrafted prints you'll genuinely enjoy taking home.

What’s Included

Everything you need is provided. Your registration includes professional-quality cyanotype materials, a wide selection of botanicals, glass and backer boards with clamps, water and finishing baths, and all of the supplies needed to create prints, greeting cards, gift tags, bookmarks, or gift bags.

You'll also have individual guidance throughout the evening, plenty of time to experiment with different botanicals and compositions, and multiple finished pieces to take home.

Just bring yourself. If you have leaves or flowers you'd like to incorporate into your artwork, you're welcome to bring them, but there's absolutely no need. Everything will be ready and waiting for you when you arrive.