Blog

Last weekend we decided to get some of our favorite Seattle folks together for a private dyeing party and show them how much fun one can have putting color to cloth. In attendance were Sarah Menzies filmmaker, director and general mind-blower of Let Media, model, activist and humanitarian Kate Dillon who works for forestry protection […]

Tinctoria Designs was created by Samantha Backer and Jill Golden in the Spring of 2003. All of Tinctoria’s garments are the duos original designs and are “intentionally manufactured” in Portland, Oregon using only organic fabric blends including hemp, soy, and organic cotton and Botanical Colors’ natural dyes. Both Sandy and Jill use organic fibers to […]

LuRu Home brings a contemporary edge to a traditional craft by working with several of the remaining Chinese families using the Nankeen textile dyeing technique to create beautiful home decor pieces. What is Nankeen and how do they keep this craft alive you ask? Well, read on! Nankeen is a technique used to dye cotton and […]

“THEY are the duo described by their admirers as ‘better than Google.’ Revered for their incredible fine motor skills, Olive Edyvean and Margaret Belling are two of the longest serving members of the Handweavers and Spinners Guild of Wagga. Olive joined the guild when the club was in its infancy, attending her first meeting in […]

272 years after the first successful indigo crop was planted in the Carolina colonies, Donna Hardy of Sea Island Indigo got an idea to research and track down the original strain of indigo plants that were grown in colonial Charleston. Her research and persistence located a few remaining varieties in isolated areas that had been […]

“Every Memorial Day and July 4th millions of Americans get into the celebratory spirit, decking our homes and even ourselves in red, white, and blue. But why is the American flag red, white and blue rather than green, yellow and blue? When the Continental Congress adopted the American flag in 1777, to celebrate our country’s […]

Like I’ve said before, working for a natural dye guru like Kathy Hattori can give one an inferiority complex. I hate inferiority complexes for me or anyone else, so when feeling less than, I say take on the thing that most scares you (unless it’s skiing). In this particular case, I accepted the challenge of […]

Studio time is always inspiring and we were more than happy to welcome Liz Spencer of The Dogwood Dyer from Brooklyn a few weeks ago. Liz creates hand made accessories and garments from ethically sourced fibers and dyestuffs from the country and along roadsides surrounding New York City. She also grows some of her dyes […]

This past weekend we had the pleasure of collaborating with EILEEN FISHER’S GREEN EILEEN team at a workshop in Seattle at the Hillman City Collaboratory. The Collaboratory is a center for the arts and an incubator for social change with a mission to create a space of transformation including the built environment and the programming […]

Colossal writes: “In 1692 an artist known only as “A. Boogert” sat down to write a book in Dutch about mixing watercolors. Not only would he begin the book with a bit about the use of color in painting, but would go on to explain how to create certain hues and change the tone by […]