Blog - Botanical Colors

Mordant Monday: R U Mordant Curious?

For Mordant Monday, we answer your Mordant Questions and dive into everyone’s favorite topic: MORDANTS. Are you Mordant Curious? I received a great question about the mordants we carry. Like, you have so many. What is the difference? Does it really matter? Having a variety of mordant choices allows you as an artist to consider your materials before you start creating. For example: if you are dyeing a cellulose fabric, you can use aluminum acetate, or you can use a tannin pre-mordant and then apply aluminum sulfate as the mordant. They will give you different results. We’ve created a table … Read more

Mordant Monday: Spotlight on Sumac

Taking a little time to work more closely with tannins has been incredibly interesting! This week’s tannin exploration focuses on Sumac. Sumac is from the Rhus genus and its scientific name is Rhus coriaria. It’s native to southern Europe and western Asia where it is commonly known as Tanner’s Sumac or Sicilian Sumac. We are fortunate to have number of North American native sumac including Rhus glaubra, sometimes called Smooth Sumac, and Rhus typhina or Staghorn Sumac, known for its dramatic bright red berry clusters. The staghorn berries were used by indigenous people as a tea, and the bark, branches, … Read more

Sunday Visit: Arounna Khounnoraj and the Origins of @Bookhou

Every Sunday, Botanical Colors sits down for an interview with a luminary in the natural dye, textile and art world. Grab a cup of tea and settle in to learning about someone you never knew! Catch up on all our Sunday Visits here. This week we sit down with Arounna to learn about how she got started with her husband and how she grew her amazing community to what it is today. Can you tell us your origin story? How did Bookhou begin? I finished art school with a background in sculpture and ceramics and I started doing some teaching at … Read more

a spoon of brown powder on a stack of tan and brown fabrics and yarns

Mordant Monday: Walnut, Madder, Iron and Indigo

Black Walnut Juglans nigra is one of our most interesting tannins and it’s a color that’s native to the North American continent. The entire tree contains color but it is in the green hulls that we find a strong concentration of dark tannins yield light beige to golden brown on cellulose. On wool, black walnut really shines and makes a rich brown shade. Walnut Hull Powder from black walnut (Juglans nigra) is a common source of brown dye throughout North America. The fleshy hulls are full of tannin, juglone and other pigments and are the primary source of the dye. … Read more

Sunday Visit: Kara Gilbert on Vibrant Valley Blue

Every Sunday, Botanical Colors sits down for an interview with a luminary in the natural dye, textile and art world. Grab a cup of tea and settle in to learning about someone you never knew! Catch up on all our Sunday Visits here. This week we sit down with force of nature Kara Gilbert of Vibrant Valley Farm. Vibrant Valley Farm works diligently to care for this earth in everything they do. They farm vegetables, flowers and dye plants and in each step of the process, honor sustainable practices to create healthier communities locally and globally in their outreach, education and daily … Read more

Mordant Monday: Tannins and Teal, Osage Edition

We have a new type of Mordant Monday for you today where we dive into the world of Tannins! We want to show you how to use our tannins to mordant, either in combination with aluminum sulfate, to get rich long lasting and substantive color, or to use as a base for color mixing. We will explore our tannins over the next few weeks. In the photo pictured above we dyed our hemp towel irregulars first in an Indigo Henna Vat. We then used a 15% WOF bath of our osage saw dust to get this beautiful hue. Osage orange … Read more

Sunday Visit: Some Kind Of Blue with Kenya Miles of Blue Light Junction

Every Sunday, Botanical Colors sits down for an interview with a luminary in the natural dye, textile and art world. Grab a cup of tea and settle in to learning about someone you never knew! Catch up on all our Sunday Visits here. This week’s Sunday Visit we catch up with Kenya Miles, to have a deep and meaningful conversation around what the color blue means. How Blue Light Junction came to be and how through community and craft we can hold space for each other to learn to learn. We had a wonderful phone interview that honestly left me … Read more

You Asked, Kathy Answered: Pros & Cons of Rainwater

YOU ASKED: Is it reliable to use rainwater? What are the consequences (pros and cons) of doing that for a dyebath? What should I be aware of (more acidity perhaps?)? KATHY ANSWERED: Rainwater is usually softer and more acidic than groundwater, so you could see a difference between colors dyed with well or groundwater and those dyed in rainwater. Some dyes such as cochineal and lac benefit from softer or demineralized water and rain water could be useful in that situation. I used to struggle to achieve bright cochineal pink shades when I lived in an area where our water … Read more

MORDANT MONDAY: A Plant-Based Option For Mordanting?

We get mordant questions all the time at Botanical Colors so why not create Mordant Monday??? Got mordanting questions? Email [email protected] YOU ASKED: I’m trying to make my natural dye practice completely plant-based, which also includes my mordant. I’ve used sumac and different nuts in the fall, tea and avocado pits, but do you sell a plant-based mordant? I still want to get great color and not all plant-based “mordants” are getting me to where I want to be. KATHY ANSWERED: We do! Symplocos is an exciting alternative that will give you the mordanting power as your base. We are … Read more

Annatto & Hibiscus Dyed Easter Eggs

Everyone from kids to adults love to get their hands messy when they dye Easter eggs with natural dyes. This is a fun tutorial for adults and kiddos (parents help, please) to make a little Easter magic. First things first, let’s talk about health & safety: We always recommend working in a very well ventilated area. Although natural dyes are non-toxic, when using fine powders it’s best to wear a mask, and keep the windows open. Be mindful around little ones and pets as you don’t want anything going in mouths that shouldn’t be there. Also, when beginning to set … Read more