Over a century ago, George Washington Carver brought the Jesup Agricultural Wagon to rural communities across the South. It was a traveling classroom, sharing practical knowledge on farming, soil health, and new ways to use plants for food, textiles, and color.
In the Fall of 2025, the Civilizations of Color research team at Yale CEA developed the Carver Mobile Color Lab inspired by Carver. Partnering with
@armorycommunitygarden in New Haven to host a couple of participatory workshops exploring natural dyes and pigments sourced from food, agricultural and forestry by products, local clays and quarry mineral by-products in New Haven and Macon County.
Working with gardeners, students, and neighbors, participants experimented with making color from materials usually treated as waste on a range of building materials - local woods, hempcrete, mycelium and earth masonry.
Color Development and Workshop Team:
Mae-ling Lokko, Laetitia Morlie, Brigid Elrod, Rebecca Mqamelo
Fabrication:
Mae-ling Lokko, Oswaldo Chinchilla, Alireza Samani Zamani, Laetitia Morlie, Moss Brener-Bryant
Funding: Yale ASCEND Faculty Collaboration Grant (Yale CEA and Tuskegee School of Architecture)
#carvercolorlab #plantone #jesupwagon #georgewashingtoncarver healthymaterials naturaldyes mineralpigments
