Pantone 2013 Color of the Year: Emerald
This is an easy to make, beautiful green. I am including some guidelines – create your own version for a beautiful accent to your 2013 color palette. EMERALD On wool yarn, mordant with potassium aluminum sulfate. You may use between 10-20% on the weight of the fiber. -Use 5% fustic and 5% Saxon Blue. At first, this may look overwhelmingly blue. Don’t panic, we just need a little heat to bring up the fustic color. Simmer for 45 minutes and you should have a beautiful bluish green. -You may need to adjust either or both percentages to create the color … Read more
Woad Workshop and Master Class with Denise Lambert
Join us for a very special workshop this Fall in Seattle! Learn the ancient art of Woad dyeing from master dyer Denise Simeon Lambert, founder of Bleu de Lectoure in southwest France. Denise’s passion for traditional French Blue revitalized woad dyeing and cultivation in France and brought back the medieval techniques of the traditional woad vat, modernizing it for current day use. Denise will be joining us from Lectoure France and this promises to be a very special class. For our workshop, we will be gathering at Magnuson Park and setting up our woad vats outside in the Garden Amphitheater. … Read more
Make An Easy, Organic Indigo Vat
In 2009 and 2010 I had the opportunity to study with natural dye master Michel Garcia. He is a marvelous and knowledgeable teacher, fascinated with using the chemistry of simple ingredients to create natural colors. One of the things that he demonstrated to us was to be fearless about the indigo fermentation vat. What a gift! For me, the indigo fermentation vat has always been a mystery and I could never quite figure out all the details so I never pursued it. I was getting great and consistent color with my lye and soda ash and chemical reducing agents, so why … Read more
Gone Woading
This past May, Botanical Colors was honored to host woad master Denise Lambert of Bleu de Lectoure for a weekend of woad dipping using the ancient blue dye of Europe that she and her husband revitalized in France. She brought her charming assistant, Sophie Boss and they worked their woad magic in Seattle. We started our woad adventure in my studio, measuring, stirring and a bit of praying. Seventeen mother vats for Saturday and 15 for Sunday. Once the vats were mixed, we left them overnight to rest. What a time it was woading! We started early in the … Read more
I’m the guest blogger for Cotton Clouds this month
I’m the guest blogger for the month at Cotton Clouds. Check out their new EZ Dye kits using a non-toxic pretreated cotton that takes natural dyes beautifully with no mordanting! The colors are so interesting – a slightly different palette than other natural dyes on cotton – these tones will go beautifully with most interior colors. The toothy cotton yarn is perfect for weaving 6 generously sized table napkins that are ideal for summertime picnics or casual dining. Check out the EZ Dye Cotton kit on the Cotton Clouds website. It’s a fun and easy project!
Earth Day is April 22
1969, the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland caught fire. Although it wasn’t the first time the river burned, it became the symbol of the desperate condition of American waterways choked by pollution and spurred the passage of the Clean Water Act. A year later, 20 million Americans rallied on April 22 – the first Earth Day and the birth of the present day environmental movement. 42 years later, the environmental challenges are great, but we have many opportunities to take action. Here is the statement from the Earth Day website For Earth Day 2012 we are mobilizing the planet simply to … Read more