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The Latest from our blog

Mordant Monday: Tannin Extravaganza!

September 15, 2025September 15, 2025

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MORDANT MONDAY: Is Soy Milk a Mordant?

August 18, 2025August 18, 2025

MORDANT MONDAY: Post-Mordant Scouring?

August 11, 2025August 11, 2025

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botanicalcolors

Ancient dyes for modern times. Your resource for natural dyes, education and natural dye production.

We are excited to dive into Tannins for our Fall s

We are excited to dive into Tannins for our Fall season! This Mordant Monday, on social we dive into Wattle!

Wattle (Acacia mearnsii) is a member of the Acacia family. People use it extensively in leather tanning as it works very well for even coverage and penetration of skins and pelts for tanning. Australia, South Africa and India are the major growers of wattle. They most commonly extract the Black Wattle to create the dye.

Natural dyers use wattle extract as one of the rich tannins to create iron-based grays and blacks or to overdye with indigo to create interesting muted greens. The color is a beige with a pink cast. Additionally, it has a characteristic toasty wood smell. For more information on how to use it, please see our page on natural dye extracts.

#naturaldye #tannin #mordantmonday

It’s Tannin Time! Tannins are one of our favorit

It’s Tannin Time!
Tannins are one of our favorite ingredients for making great color on cellulose fibers, and we have a great selection in stock now. If you are a forager, it’s also a great time to start looking for pods, cones, berries and acorns that are chock full of tannins!

We've also relaunched our DOUBLE TROUBLE TANNIN SERIES with both Kathy Hatori & Cara Piazza in January! Head to our LEARN section to sign up for Tannin Rainbow and Tannin Twilight!

#tannin #botanicalcolors #naturaldye #naturaldyeworkshop

Inspired by our dear friend @katrinarodabaugh, we'

Inspired by our dear friend @katrinarodabaugh, we've decided to start a new REDESIGN campaign! We want to know how you recycle, redesign and rework your wardrobe with our dyes, or honestly just natural dyes in general! We know there is a huge squeeze now on the economy so stretching your dye baths is now more important than ever. We also want to share what you do and make, so will now be featuring YOUR PHOTOS weekly in our newsletter ( it goes out to A LOT of people... ). TAG US WITH WHAT YOU MAKE! Use the hashtag #redesignBCdyes and we will monitor and add you to our newsletter!

Head to our BOOKS section to purchase her book MAKE, THRIFT, MEND.

Let us know in the comments how you #redesign!

Quebracho colorado (Schinopsis balansae and Schino

Quebracho colorado (Schinopsis balansae and Schinopsis lorentzii), commonly called quebracho is an evergreen tree that grows wild in South America. It grows mainly in Argentina and Paraguay in dense sub-tropical forests which also include a variety of other trees and vegetation. The name is due to its hardness, and comes from two Spanish words, quebrar and hacha, meaning the axe breaker. In fact, quebracho has been used locally for posts, telegraph poles, bridge timbers, railway ties, paving blocks and for any construction where great durability is desired.

Quebracho moreno is high in tannin. It can be used as a tannin mordant or a dye on cellulose fibers. The extract will produce a warm beige-brown color and will darken slightly on exposure to direct sunlight. For more information on using it as a dye, please see our page on natural dye extracts.

From our Feedback Friday series:
When I do the mordant process and use tannin it usually dyes my fabric a brown color. Is there a trick for that NOT to happen?

Tannin is present in a number of different dyestuffs, and depending on how dark it is, does create a brown shade. If you want to use a “clear” tannin like gallo-tannin, the color will be a light yellowish brown – similar to the color of a manila folder. Additionally, it is normally not noticeable in the final dyed textile unless you are dyeing very pale shades. A quick rundown of other tannins that are suitable for use are:

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