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Welcome

Ecology of Color is a natural dye garden + studio rooted in the quiet countryside of Rockvale, Tennessee.

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Our work is centered on the belief that color is an intimate expression of place, shaped by the soils beneath our feet, the seasonal rhythms of plants, and the hands that tend them. ​​We offer hands-on workshops where guests can experience the entire process of color-making—from gathering materials on our property to transforming them into vibrant, usable color. ​​

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Alison Webb, Ph.D.

My work is rooted in a lifelong fascination with the living world, one that deepened during my work as an ecologist and continues to guide everything I create.

 

I approach color as a relationship: a collaboration between plants, minerals, fungi, place, and the human hands that transform them. Each pigment, dye, and mark carries a story of soil, season, and the ecological processes that shape our landscapes.​​

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Our Farm

After 10 years on the West Coast, our family moved back to the Southeast to be closer to our long-rooted family home in Middle Tennessee. Here we decided to grow our little business (and a lot of plants) in Rockvale, TN. A 25-acre plot of land with a farmhouse built in 1815. A space for us to garden, foster native species, remove invasive plants, and offer hands-on workshops. 

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Indoor Classroom

We offer a comfortable indoor classroom with a bathroom, kitchenette, and refrigerator for storing lunch items. Most workshops include a mix of indoor and outdoor time, as noted in each class description. Class sizes are limited to 10 participants to ensure a relaxed, high-quality experience for everyone.

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Outdoor Workspace

We have an abundance of outdoor workspace, with covered porches and long clotheslines. You’ll have plenty of room to spread out and work surrounded by our green fields.

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Shop

Our little shop has a curated selection of dyeable items, carefully cleaned and prepared for dyeing. You can purchase these items and dye them on workshop days. We also offer a variety of handmade items featuring natural dyes, pigments, and ceramics from Oakenstone Pottery. ​

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Garden

The dye garden is where we grow the plants we work with. This is also an important educational space. At a workshop, you may tour the garden and gather your own plants to work with. 

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We grow a wide variety of plants, and while things do change with the seasons, we typically have:

  • Japanese Indigo

  • Woad

  • Indigofera sp. 

  • Weld

  • Coreopsis

  • Greenthread

  • Cosmos

  • Dyer's Chamomile

  • Yarrow

  • Hollyhock

  • Rudbeckia sp.

  • Dhalias

  • Scabiosa

  • Saffron

  • Safflower

  • Tumeric

  • Sand Dock

  • Hopi Sunflower

  • Marigolds

  • Madder

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Historic Farmhouse

Originally built in 1815 as a one-room log cabin from cedar trees felled on the property, this home has grown and evolved through many additions and renovations over the past 200 years. The most recent of these came from Alison’s family when she was a child. If you’re interested in old houses and their stories, be sure to ask—we’ve uncovered plenty of fascinating details along the way!

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Native Plant Sanctuary

Our property in Middle Tennessee is part of a large glade complex, characterized by shallow soil, limestone rock, and a remarkable diversity of plants that thrive in the region’s alkaline, clay-rich ground.

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A tributary of the Harpeth River winds through the land, creating habitat for moisture-loving species such as Black Willow and Box Elder.

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Alison completed both her undergraduate and master’s research in the Cedar Glades of Middle Tennessee, and restoring this land to its natural ecotype has been a long-held dream—one that continues to guide the work we do here today.

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