Join Helen O’Leary and Kim Flick on Saturday 16 May, 11am—5pm for an all-day dyeing workshop for artists, working directly with the materials of Sliabh an Iarainn—its plants, waters, and iron-rich soils. This is a full day of making—slow, physical, and grounded in the place itself. Booking required and places are limited. Tickets are €10 including lunch and all materials.
Kim Flick is a third-generation dyer from the Pennsylvania Wilds, and brings a deep, practical knowledge shaped through years of making. About her collaboration with Kim Flick, Helen O’Leary says, “The Sustainable Studio, developed in close collaboration with Kim Flick, is a core part of my teaching and studio practice, grounded in the belief that making begins with material responsibility. Working closely with [Pennsylvania State University] Student Farm, we grow dye plants, oats, flax, so that colour emerges from cycles of cultivation, use, and return.”
The Sustainable Studio extends beyond traditional boundaries through collaborations with scientists reclaiming pigment from acid mine drainage, where colour carries both aesthetic and environmental weight. The artists also work within the local community, sourcing restaurant waste and discarded textiles as raw material for dyeing, rethinking what is cast off and what can be remade. What has emerged is not simply a course, but a sustained, hands-on model of practice that is slow, resourceful, and rooted in repair, interdependence, and the material realities of the world we inhabit.
This event is part of a programme to accompany the exhibition Soft Spot by Helen O’Leary. You can read more about the exhibition here. Kim Flick’s participation is kindly supported by Pennsylvania State University. For queries, email Mary Conlon at mary.conlon@leitirmcoco.ie.