Skip to content

Shop
Learn
Journal
Info
About

Shop
Learn
Journal
Info
About

Free ground shipping on all domestic orders over $125

We’re Going Back to Bali and Sumba

Join Us May 2026

Natural Dye supplies

Classes & Education

our natural dyehouse

BROWSE OUR PRODUCTS

Natural Dyes

Shop

Mordants and Assists

Shop

Fabrics and Dyeables

Shop

The Latest from our blog

Mordant Monday: Easy mordanting for wool

November 2, 2025November 2, 2025

Mordant Monday: Myrobalan Magic

October 27, 2025October 27, 2025

Sunday Visit: The Incredible Amy Dufault

October 26, 2025October 26, 2025

You might also be interested in…

Our Mordanted Bandanas

October 19th, 2025 – Eco-Printing Deep Dive with Monica Medeiros of Brico Press

PLANT TO PIGMENT PRE ORDER – By Natalie Stopka

botanicalcolors

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

MORDANT MONDAY: Aluminum Triformate – a cold water

MORDANT MONDAY: Aluminum Triformate - a cold water mordant for wool

Even as the weather cools and the days get shorter, we are still in the dye pots and love the ease of aluminum triformate for mordanting wool. Aluminum triformate is another alum mordant, and we’ve adapted a couple of recipes to create a mordant method that’s a little different than our standard hot water techniques. Very simply, we create a mordant container or bucket and mix the aluminum triformate mordant with cold water. We then use that bucket and add skeins of clean wool yarn to it and let it soak overnight or longer. Then, when we’re ready to use the yarn, we remove it, rinse it lightly, and head to the dye pot.

The advantage of aluminum triformate is that you can reuse the mordant in the mordant bucket for multiple skeins, and it’s fairly easy to add a few skeins before a weekend forage, and have them ready when you return with your found treasures! Recharging the bath is simple, and the mordant lasts for a long time. We used ours for 6 months before discarding it.

Instructions are online at botanicalcolors.com website. If you haven’t tried it yet, give it a try and let us know what you think!

#mordantmonday #aluminumtriformate #mordant #botanicalcolors

Join us for our Colors of Bali & Sumba Tour May 20

Join us for our Colors of Bali & Sumba Tour May 2026 with @thethreadsoflifebali !

This tour provides an opportunity to meet and learn from Indonesian artists and indigenous communities with insight and connections that will endure long after our visit is over.

We will view the textiles at Threads of Life and get an introduction to the variety of textiles. Participants may take an Indonesian cooking course, or relax by the pool. A light schedule will introduce the cultures of Indonesia and our host organization, Threads of Life. Our 6 days at the Threads of Life dye studio will explore the main traditional dye processes of the Indonesian archipelago. There will be unique opportunities to participate in the processing of a Strobilanthes cusia harvest into indigo pigment and paste, and the setting and use of 600-liter indigo vats, to experience the complex oil- and metallic-mordant treatments needed to get the traditional red from Morinda citrifolia roots, to use Ceriops tagal extract for the brown color of Central Java’s batiks, and to explore the archipelago’s mud dye practices. Alongside this will be the opportunity to learn batik, and a very special two day workshop within our studio time to learn about barkcloth from Central Sulawesi, and develop personal creative projects. For our last 3 days, we will tour the textile villages of east Bali. We will see weft ikat, songket supplementary weft cloth and ritual textiles in Sidemen; we will explore the cultural and technical complexity of Tenganan’s double ikat geringsing; and we will visit the makers of discontinuous weft rangrang in Seraya. For those adventuring on to Sumba, our final day in east Bali will be the start of our Sumba tour. We will travel from east Bali to DPS Airport and board a short flight to Sumba. Once in Sumba, we will use our hotel as our starting point to travel to villages and growers to learn about complex mordanting, Morinda citrifolia, indigo, mud dye and unique sculptural basketry, and learning from elders.

To learn more, head to our website or email bali2026@botanicalcolors.com

#threadsoflifebali #botanicalcolors #naturaldyetrip #naturaldyeworkshop #bali #sumba

We love our dear friends at @vibrantvalleyfarms an

We love our dear friends at @vibrantvalleyfarms and we love this photo of their stunning marigolds! We are stocked full for this winter season, so get some for all of your upcoming holiday projects including Halloween and Dia De Los Muertos!

Halloween is coming up! If you need some ideas for

Halloween is coming up! If you need some ideas for out of this world costumes, why not try @caramariepiazza's CHROMATIC TRANSFORMATIONS WORKSHOP? The recording is available for immediate download. In this in depth workshop you are able to learn how to create unique cosmic patterns and surface design techniques on a variety of natural dyes. Both with the tannin - ferrous reaction and with pH sensitive dyes.

Head to the LEARN section of our website for purchase.

#ph #naturaldyes #naturaldyeworkshop #botanicalcolors

Follow on Instagram

JOIN OUR NEWSLETTER

botanical_colors_horizontal

Botanical Colors
Seattle, WA

© Botanical colors 2025

Web Development by Two Loon Software

Shop | Learn | About Us | Employment | Contact Us

Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions

Shop
Learn
Journal
Info
About