Video From Live FEEDBACK FRIDAY: Around the World in 80 Fabrics

Our last FEEDBACK FRIDAY was with National Geographic Explorers Tierney Thys (a marine conservationist), Carroll Dunham (a medical anthropologist), and Lesli Robertson (a textile educator/consultant) for “Around the World in 80 Fabrics.” The three shared their discoveries of fabrics from nature through their project, Around the World in 80 Fabrics – from natural dyes used in Bhutanses textiles, to clay-dyed barkcloth of Uganda, and cutting edge dyes and fabrics from algae. Watch the video recording below. Project: Web, www.atw80fabrics.org IG, @atw80fabrics  Newsletter signup, HERE Support the project HERE ABOUT: With every wash, hundreds of thousands of microplastics shed off our … Read more

Tips For Pokeberry Dyeing on Wool

We’re pretty obsessed with pokeberry dyeing right now for dyeing wool, making ink and just squishing them up and dropping them on paper. They are SO intense and exciting to use. I visited Japanese textile artist and katazome instructor John Marshall in his studio in Covelo, Mendocino County and was surprised to see that his entire front yard was covered in pokeberry bushes. Although pokeberries are native to most of the the United States, I had never even heard of them and was browsing through Rebecca Burgess’ book Harvesting Color on natural dyes when I spotted a beautiful red skein … Read more

The Many Faces of Sappanwood Extract: Just Add More (Or Less) Dye + Iron

All the images and recipes below should inspire you to try out our newest extract in the shop: sappanwood. It should also make you think about doing your own experiments with different amounts of extracts and adding iron. How many colors are you missing out on?? Our fabulous Kate Rosendale, who wears many Botanical Colors’ hats just did some experiments using our new sappanwood extract. Look at the beautiful hues above just from using 5% sappanwood extract (calculated as a percentage of the weight of the fiber, or WOF) along with some artful pH shifting and iron! With a pH … Read more

Video From LIVE FEEDBACK FRIDAY: Botanical Printer Irit Dulman

This week on FEEDBACK FRIDAY we had botanical printer Irit Dulman presenting from Tel Aviv, Israel. Irit’s exploration of eco printing is focused on stark prints and bold colors derived from nature. We love her monochromatic eco printing. Watch the video recording below. Check out Irit’s website here. Follow Irit on Instagram here. Sign up for one of Irit’s online classes here. Here’s a little sample of something you could learn from Irit about tannin blankets if you took one of her classes: How to create a tannin blanket: – 1 liter of water + 5G oak galls extract for … Read more

Pretty In Pink : Cochineal Instructions

The world has been taken yet again by the effervescent hue of pink. Gretta Gerwig’s new feminist take on Barbie has taken the media by storm. The paint used for the movie set even put a run on the world’s supply!  We wanted to bring you some recipes for creating the color in a natural and harmonious way.  Kassia St. Clair, in The Secret Lives of Color takes us on a journey through how the color came to be named in modern times. “The first reference in the Oxford English Dictionary being used to describe pale reds is the late … Read more