Uncategorized - Botanical Colors

Sunday Visit: The Wonderful World of Debbie Maddy

Sunday Visit welcomes shibori artist and designer Debbie Maddy of Tiori Designs, whose work has helped bridge the gap between traditional Japanese resist techniques and the contemporary quilt and surface design communities. In her upcoming workshop, Beyond the Basics of Shibori: Stitched Resist and Indigo, Debbie invites students already comfortable with indigo and introductory resists to step deeper into thoughtful stitched patterning, layered motifs, and more intentional collaboration with the vat. Over the course of the class, participants will explore complex stitched designs, refined folding strategies, and multiple dips in indigo to create richly patterned cloth that can move into … Read more

Sunday Visit: Foraging the Forest with Julie Beeler

For Sunday Visit, Botanical Colors sits down with Julie Beeler, the artist and researcher behind Mushroom Color Atlas, to talk about her fall workshop and the surprising, luminous world of fungi-based color. From her base in the Pacific Northwest, Julie has spent years building a living reference of mushroom dyes — cataloging the reds, golds, rusts, greens, blues, and grays that emerge when fiber meets fungus — inviting dyers to look past the forest floor and into an entirely different color story. For those just discovering your work, how would you describe what the Mushroom Color Atlas is — and … Read more

Sunday Visit: Women’s Day, Celebrating Kenya Miles of Blue Light Junction

On this International Women’s Day, we’re honoring the visionary, natural dyer and community organizer that is Kenya Miles—artist, urban farmer, and founder of Blue Light Junction, Baltimore’s first natural dye studio and a living monument to love in action. As Kenya and her team enter a new chapter of tending vats, garden beds, and community, they’re asking for our tangible support to keep this sanctuary of global dye traditions, education, and mutual care thriving. If Blue Light Junction’s work resonates with you, please take a moment today to visit their GoFundMe and give what you can, share if you’re able, … Read more

Sunday Visit: From Plant to Pigment with Natalie Stopka

Natalie Stopka’s work lives at the confluence of artistry, ecology, and inquiry. A bookmaker and pigment artist attuned to the language of materials, she explores the cycles of growth, decay, and transformation through color coaxed from the natural world. Her studio practice feels like collaboration rather than control—an ongoing conversation between plant, hand, and time. In this week’s Sunday Visit, Natalie opens the doors to that world, where books are bound with patience, pigments ripen through experiment, and the intimacy of observation becomes a creative act in itself. Her new book, From Plant to Pigment, grew from years of teaching … Read more

Sunday Visit: Victoria Manganiello of Craftwork. The Intersection of Technology & Craft.

In this edition of Botanical Colors’ Sunday Visit series, we sit down with Victoria Manganiello, the innovative textile artist and co-founder of Craftwork, whose work blurs the boundaries between ancient weaving traditions and cutting-edge technology. From her early days experimenting with knitting and macramé to her current projects that fuse natural dyes, fiber optics, and computer programming, Manganiello’s practice is a testament to the power of collaboration, curiosity, and storytelling. Join us as we delve into her journey—exploring how she weaves together history, materiality, and digital code to create textiles that are as poetic as they are thought-provoking. Early Influences: … Read more