Video From Live FEEDBACK FRIDAY: Fashion Revolution + Katrina Rodabaugh

This week, we’ve got video from our live FEEDBACK FRIDAY featuring Fashion Revolution Co-Founder Orsola de Castro and mending/natural dyeing author and artist Katrina Rodabaugh. Katrina Rodabaugh gave inspiring insight into some easy mending techniques, ways we can rethink our clothing and how natural dyes have been a big part of her Make, Thrift, Mend project. This week fell right on Fashion Revolution Day, the anniversary of the Rana Plaza factory collapse, which killed 1138 people and injured many more on 24th April 2013. During this week, brands and producers are encouraged to respond with the hashtag #imadeyourclothes and to … Read more

Video From Live FEEDBACK FRIDAY: Natural Dye Inks With Biohue

This week, we’ve got video from our live FEEDBACK FRIDAY exploring natural dye inks with Judi Pettite of Biohue. Watch the recording here: This time around we got Judi Pettite, the founder of Biohue to answer questions and talk about how she forages, purchases and grows all the materials for her art as mindfully as possible. BioHue dye inks was founded  in 2006 after Judi fell in love with colors she was getting from plants. Her inks and watercolors are made intentionally from the fewest ingredients possible and can be used in a number of applications including painting, drawing and home … Read more

Video From Live FEEDBACK FRIDAY: The 1-2-3 Indigo Vat Using Iron

This week, we’ve got video from our live FEEDBACK FRIDAY exploring a version of the famous 1-2-3 indigo vat using iron. Watch the recording here: This time around we explored a version of the famous 1-2-3 indigo vat using iron (ferrous sulfate) as our reducing agent. This is a useful vat for achieving darker shades, but comes with a few caveats. We reviewed how to make the vat using the 1-2-3 method (the proportions are a little different than the fructose vat), and what to do when your vat turns purple (really). We also reviewed safety and best practices. Botanical Colors’ … Read more

Feedback Friday

FEEDBACK FRIDAY Goes Live March 27th

Join us this week, March 27th, 9am Pacific,  for a live FEEDBACK FRIDAY! Let’s social distance ourselves from the realities of what’s outside our homes and talk all things natural dyes. What could be better? If you are not familiar with FEEDBACK FRIDAY, every week, we are emailed with questions from our natural dye community. Weekly, all of  your burning questions are answered by natural dyer in chief, Kathy Hattori, Founder of Botanical Colors. Both Kathy and Amy DuFault, Botanical Colors’ Sustainability and Social Media Director will be on hand to moderate and answer questions this week. Hopefully, the two … Read more

Covid-19 update from Botanical Colors

Covid-19 update from Botanical Colors Greetings from Seattle – ’nuff said about that. We are heartbroken that so many of our dear creative friends are feeling the fear and uncertainty of the outbreak. It is a crazy time, and not knowing what’s going to happen is unnerving. We are doing okay, and taking an abundance of health precautions. The weather is sunnier, daffodils are in bloom and the Winter Daphne (Daphnia odora) is delighting us with her amazing fragrance. Those simple things are lifting our spirits during these difficult times. The dog is delighted that we are around a lot … Read more

Our Plastic Packaging Journey

Botanical Colors has been on a mission to eliminate our single-use plastic packaging. But this has not been an easy journey. Our quest has been fraught with false starts and setbacks and claims that haven’t been exactly true. The hardest part is that as a small company there are some options that are out of our reach. It all started with the basics: what were our options instead of single-use plastic? Could we eliminate 100% of our single use plastic packaging?  Does the technology even work with our water-phobic powders? We spoke with eco-conscious packaging companies from Seattle to Israel, … Read more