Natural Dyes: Sustainable Color for Artists Talk in Washington
Thanks so much to the Washington state based Contemporary Art Quilt Association for this story on Kathy’s recent “Sustainable Color for Artists” talk. Check out the article here.
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Sweet Peach Creates Natural Dyes For Home DIY
We love discovering new blogs that tackle natural dyeing. Sweet Peach is one of our new favorites and had us when we just saw kids in the kitchen. Kids never stop wanting to create and play and what better than to bring common household items into the fold to create with! Check out this great blog post they did using Tumeric, coffee, blackberries, tea, beets, red cabbage, berries and spinach -these ladies had a blast. Check out this blog post to see their results and if you’re looking for an all in one kit, look no further than one of … Read more
Dyeing for Dummies: Natural Dye Poster Child-Indigo
Indigo has a long standing history of heavy-duty power in terms of economics and trade and is probably one of the most talked and written about dyes in the natural dye world. We love the color blue and all its moodiness. It’s also very in for fall 14. Get ready for the navy explosion! For this Dyeing for Dummies, I have put not only myself but husband and daughter in the cross hairs of looking foolish, over exuberant, and dummy-like. (Side note, they had a blast and refuse to be called dummies.) We used all of Botanical Colors’ dyes and … Read more
Food as a Medium: Pigments and Dyes Made from Edibles
Design Milk writers from Pinch Food Design Bob Spiegel and TJ Girard recently had a great post on natural dyes made from edibles that we were swooning over. They write: “Food as a medium is not a new concept, but a revisited one. Many trades, especially textile designers are finding crossover with food while developing their pieces. What’s interesting to us is some of their application methods when it comes to natural dyes. Never thought I would be nostalgic for tie-dye, however after a brief holiday in the hippie hills of Southern Turkey, I’ve found myself lured by these chaotic … Read more
Good for You Clothing from Oregon’s Tinctoria Designs
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 “honor and protect our bodies and the environment.” Each Tinctoria garment is first sewn in it’s undyed natural state and is then hand dyed in our studio using material extracted from trees, roots, plants, and insects. All of the colors are handcrafted by mixing and … Read more
Dyeing For Dummies: The Mysteries of Walnut Hull Powder
Working for a natural dye guru can give a social media director and consultant (that’s me) an inferiority complex. In fact, when people ask me who I work for and I tell them, Kathy Hattori, a “natural dye guru,” and they say “Oh, you must be really good at dyeing,” all I can do is shrink back a bit and say, “I’ve only dyed once…and um, that was with Kathy.” The look of surprise too many times on people’s faces got me thinking, why WASN’T I trying to learn how to dye? Why was I letting Kathy and all her … Read more
Tips For Using Less Water & Energy to Get Color
Here are some simple tips to help you use less water and energy to get the colors you want: 1. Try some of the innovative dye techniques as practiced by India Flint and Kimberly Baxter Packwood. Both these artists create using low-water and low resource methods that yield surprising and very beautiful results. Each has developed her method of eco-dyeing using windfall and waste materials and the pieces they produce are evocative of the spirit of a leaf or the wild meanderings of decomposing plant matter. 2. Take up fabric or yarn painting with natural dyes. You use less water … Read more
You Asked, Kathy Answered: Indigo For Soap Making
We get lots of emails from customers about challenges with dyeing and needing Botanical Colors’ President Kathy Hattori’s help. Why not share the learning so we can all benefit? From our inboxes to you, it’s simple: You Asked, Kathy Answered. Email [email protected] with your plea for help! YOU ASKED: Indigo is often used as a natural colorant in soap making and I have been using your organic indigo powder for the past couple of years. As I’ve been researching about processing my fresh indigo plants to turn into powder I’ve started wondering about using indigo powder for soap making and … Read more
MORDANT MONDAY: Mordanting For Mixed Fibers + Blotchy Linen
We get mordant questions all the time at Botanical Colors so why not create Mordant Monday??? Got mordanting questions? Email [email protected] This week on MORDANT MONDAY… YOU ASKED: I tried the oak gall tannin and then symplocos method on linen and for the life of me I can’t get an even dye. The mordant looks blotchy. Not sure what to do. I get consistently blotchy pieces with linen. KATHY ANSWERED: Hmm. Unevenness in mordanting and dyeing can come from a number of bedeviling sources. The first thing that comes to mind is the cleanliness of the fabric. If the linen isn’t evenly … Read more