Cara Marie Piazza

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New York, NY
Cara Marie Piazza

Founder of Calyx Studios — a NYC natural dye house creating custom textiles for Coach, Jason Wu, Mara Hoffman, Eileen Fisher & more. Workshops + commissions.

Color from botanicals, minerals & food waste. Industry meets alchemy. Please email [email protected] for all inquiries. Thank you!

05/19/2026

Naturally dyed linen tufted cushion for the Scroll Bench.

Dyed with chestnut, calx and iron.

Photos by

05/12/2026

SOLUTIO

A cross-disciplinary exhibition featuring work by
Alexis Stiteler, Cara Marie Piazza (Calyx Studios), Cadis and Midden Projects

Opening Reception: Thursday, May 14, 2026 | 6–9 PM
Open Studio Days: Friday, May 15 & Saturday, May 16, 2026 | 12 -6pm

Location: Calyx Studios, 435 South 5th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11211 - Studio 1 ( Buzzer one or the open garage door - weather permitting )

This May, Calyx Studios opens its doors to Solutio, an exhibition of three practices embracing the slowness of material exploration. The natural dyes of Cara Marie Piazza (Calyx Studios), the drawings of Alexis Stiteler, lighting sculpture of Cadis, and the furniture of McKeever Donovan (Midden Projects) all share a faith in patient transformation — in the moment a substance loosens its hold on what it was and becomes something else. What they share is a faith in slow transformation — in the moment a substance loosens its hold on what it was and becomes something else.

Solutio takes its name from the alchemical stage of dissolution — the deliberate breaking-down of a substance so that something new might emerge. Across dye vats, drawings, and forged objects, the exhibition traces a through-line of material transmutation. Plants rendered into color, observation distilled into line, wood, metal and resins shaped by hand and time into form. Each practice operates by its own slow logic, yet each is grounded in a shared attention to source, process, and the small alchemies of making.

Limited Edition L/S tees available in person 14-16th, online goes live the 17th.

05/04/2026

Rosemary is one of my favorite plants, one that provides medicine to remember.

The Greeks wove it into garlands for scholars and mourners alike — a herb that sharpened the mind and honored the dead, a thread connecting what we hold onto and what we let go. It sat on wedding tables and funeral altars, in bridal bouquets and burial shrouds, marking every threshold worth remembering.

It’s not simply an herb for the soup pot.

In the dye bath, rosemary provides beautiful subtle hues. Its color is herbaceous, alive — soft yellow-greens, muted olives, gentle warm tans that breathe rather than shout. Like bay, it shape-shifts with a tanning base, your mordant, the pH of your water. Iron pulls it toward smoky sage. Alum lets it stay golden. The same sprig, steeped in different baths, gives different colors.

On May 9th, this Saturday, I’m teaching a live online class built around rosemary and bay — two sacred Mediterranean herbs explored through two tannin bases and a range of modifiers. We’ll work slowly and ,ethnically to learn how these plants can provide a spectrum of color.

$115 • Approx 3 hours on Zoom • Recording included 12pm–3pm EST

Link in bio to reserve your place.

Can’t make it live? No worries — it will be recorded and you can watch anytime.

04/28/2026

Save the date: May 14th - 16th

SOLUTIO
A cross-disciplinary exhibition featuring work by
Alexis Stiteler, Cara Marie Piazza (Calyx Studios), Cadis and Midden Projects
Opening Reception: Thursday, May 14, 2026 | 6–9 PM
Open Studio Days: Friday, May 15 & Saturday, May 16, 2026 | 12 -6pm
Location: Calyx Studios, 435 South 5th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11211 - Studio 1 ( Buzzer one or the open garage door - weather permitting )

This May, Calyx Studios opens its doors to Solutio, an exhibition of three practices embracing the slowness of material exploration. The natural dyes of Cara Marie Piazza (Calyx Studios), the drawings of Alexis Stiteler, lighting sculpture of Cadis, and the furniture of McKeever Donovan (Midden Projects) all share a faith in patient transformation — in the moment a substance loosens its hold on what it was and becomes something else. What they share is a faith in slow transformation — in the moment a substance loosens its hold on what it was and becomes something else.

Solutio takes its name from the alchemical stage of dissolution — the deliberate breaking-down of a substance so that something new might emerge. Across dye vats, drawings, and forged objects, the exhibition traces a through-line of material transmutation. Plants rendered into color, observation distilled into line, wood, metal and resins shaped by hand and time into form. Each practice operates by its own slow logic, yet each is grounded in a shared attention to source, process, and the small alchemies of making.

Please RSVP to [email protected].

Beverages sponsored in kind by

04/24/2026

The charcoal over dye service. An all natural black to give your garments a new life. Available at calyxstudios.com.

04/14/2026

Studio notes

12/15/2025

Naturally dyed Canvas curtains for by . Dyed with Myrobalan, chestnut & iron.

Interior design by of .projects .

Photos by .

12/03/2025

Chromatic Immersion - A Study of Dyeing with New York Native Plants & Tannins - A Two Day Immersion
2/7 - 10 - 5pm
2/8 - 10 - 3pm

435 South 5th Street,
Brooklyn, NY 11211

 
Join me at Studios in Brooklyn for a two day immersion in dyeing with Native New York Plants and Tannins. I will cover the core principles of natural dyeing, mordanting, and building a chromatic range of natural color with tannins and abundant plants found in New York City. There are a limited number of 10 participants only.

The day begins at 10am, where we will cover how to scour, mordant and prep your fibers, and create hot immersion baths from foraged plant matter and natural extracts.

We will have a farm to table lunch provided by a top rated NYC chef.
Our afternoon session will be color building with tannin mordant bases on four different tannins. Chestnut, Acorn, Oak Gall & Pomegranate. You will learn a methodical approach to creating unique natural color blends, on four tannin - mordant bases mixed with four different dyes including Indigo and madder extracts and foraged goldenrod and mugwort from in Long Island, NY.

Day 2 will be finishing our samples and creating our Indigo Color Range. I will demonstrate how to make a 1-2-3 Henna Indigo Vat.

You will leave with a range of 36 different hues on two different fabrics, one USA Grown Linen from Tuscarora Mills & Peace Silk. You will also receive your own studio notebook and herbarium to take with you, and hopefully a new set of lifelong friends.

Head to Calyxstudios.com to sign up or my link in my stories. We will have two spots for half price scholarships. Please email [email protected] to be considered.

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Address

New York, NY
11222

Website

http://www.caramariepiazza.com/

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