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The Easy 1-2-3 Fructose Indigo Kit

The 1-2-3 fructose indigo vat is one of our most popular vats for its ease of use and good, strong colors. We made things easy to start your new indigo adventure with this kit that has enough pre-measured indigo and auxiliaries to make a rich vat in a 5-gallon bucket. We’re also including 4 linen blend cocktail napkins that you can dip and make a set of pretty napkins or just use them to show gradations of indigo. The bundle is packaged in an organic cotton bag, that can also be dyed! Experiment with gradation dyeing, shibori, or get into … Read more

Organically Grown Marigold Flowers

We love how marigold makes a beautiful and easy color that captures summer even when the weather is cold and gray. As a familiar garden plant, they brighten flower borders and are a companion plant in organic gardening. The marigold (Tagetes erecta) is native to Central America. The Aztecs used it as a flavoring ingredient for cacao and it was important in Aztec rituals. In Mexico, marigold is also referred to as “Flor de Muertos” (Flowers of the Dead) and used in the Dia de Muertos festivals and ceremonies. The deeply scented and brightly colored Mexican marigold is believed to … Read more

Tannin Grayscale with Cara Marie Piazza

Tannin Grayscale Online workshop with Cara Piazza Online workshop held on Saturday January 25, 2025 10AM-1PM Pacific / 1 – 4pm Eastern The workshop will be recorded and available for 120 days after purchase. Learn how to create moody gray gradations using our pre-mordanted cotton fabric fat quarters, natural dyes, logwood and a few surprises. Tannins are a bitter and astringent compound found so abundantly in many plants. In food, they serve as the slight pucker in black coffee and tea, and the “oaky” flavor in aged wines. Tannins are used in medicine and for leather tanning. For us, … Read more

Organically Grown Sulfur Cosmos Flowers

Sulfur cosmos (Cosmos sulphureus) is a member of the cosmos family. It is a real treat to have in the natural dye garden. This is another New World native, indigenous to Mexico and Central America. The vigorous annual readily self-seeds, attracts pollinators and yields masses of bright orange flowers. You can use them either fresh or dried. Add the flowers directly into the dye bath and watch as they make a wonderful, sunny orange shade that brightens the winter palette, or scatter them for eco-printing. If you are familiar with dyeing with coreopsis, sulfur cosmos makes a brighter shade with … Read more

Symplocos Plant Mordant

11/18 – Preorder as this product arrives this week! Thank you! We are happy to offer symplocos (Symplocos cochinchinensis) dried leaf powder as a plant mordant from Indonesia. The fallen leaves are hyperaccumulators, rich in alum from endangered forests. As a result, we support a sustainable crop rather than felling trees for their lumber, or supporting industrial mining. As natural dyers, we have access to various plant-derived tannins for mordanting options. However, there are few alum-accumulators available to us in commercial form. Symplocos offers an exciting alternative. The Plant Mordant Project offers natural dyers a unique opportunity to make reliable … Read more

THE ART OF PASTEL with Britt Boles of Seaspell Fiber

THE ART OF PASTEL with Britt Boles of Seaspell Fiber We are so excited to host Brittany Boles for a new one day workshop! December 7th, 2024 10AM to 3PM Botanical Colors 503 S Michigan St, Ste B Seattle WA 98108 Join us Saturday December 7th from 10am-3pm at Botanical Colors Studio for an immersive workshop with Britt Boles on the art of plant to handcrafted pastel. Learn the history of pastel, binder and fixative recipes, and create your own set of plant-based soft pastels with Botanical Colors premium pigments and natural dye lakes. About your teacher: When … Read more

Tannin Rainbow Online workshop with Kathy Hattori

Tannin Rainbow Online workshop with Kathy Hattori Online workshop held on Saturday January 18, 2025 10AM-1PM Pacific The workshop will be recorded and available for 120 days after purchase. Learn how to create striking color gradations using our pre-mordanted cotton fabric fat quarters, natural dyes, indigo and a few surprises. Tannins are a bitter and astringent compound found so abundantly in many plants. In food, they serve as the slight pucker in black coffee and tea, and the “oaky” flavor in aged wines. Tannins are used in medicine and for leather tanning. For us, they are the natural dyer’s not-so-secret-weapon … Read more

Organic Indigo

Organic indigo is a powder from the leaves of the indigo plant called Indigofera tinctoria. It is one of the oldest dyes known to humankind. It is also the only natural blue dye. Its colorant is present in other plants including woad (Isatis tinctoria) and Japanese indigo (Persicaria tinctoria), a buckwheat. Additionally, it is present in Strobilanthes cusia, a distant cousin to the ornamental Persian Shield that you can buy at Home Depot. Indigo pigment was used to dye shrouds for Egyptian burials, uniforms for Napoleon’s Army and has also been used to dye prestige cloth for African chiefs and … Read more

Vibrant Valley Blue Indigo Paste

We are thrilled to introduce a new, Pacific Northwest-based indigo paste from the incredible growers and dyers at Vibrant Valley Farm. Kara Gilbert and her skilled team created Vibrant Valley Blue, a Persicaria tinctoria indigo extract. This product is based on years of growing, harvesting and experimenting with varieties, cultivation and extraction and they’ve scaled their production from a few hundred starts to a robust crop of over 10,000 plants. The resulting indigo paste is easy to use and creates a beautiful clear blue. Kara used this indigo to dye a number of garments and styles to hold fashion shows … Read more

Aquarelle Liquid Indigo – Saxon Blue

The legendary Aquarelle Liquid Indigo – Saxon Blue is now available to natural dyers. First created in Germany in the 1740s, it is made from natural indigo converted with a strong acid to mimic an acid-type dye. It is not a vat dye and you do not use it like vatted indigo. It is an easy and marvelous color for wool fibers. Saxon blue is greener than traditional vatted indigo. In addition, it is a great base for teal, aqua, cornflower, periwinkle, lilac and medium value purple. To use, simply measure out the amount of liquid indigo and add to … Read more