Video From LIVE FEEDBACK FRIDAY: Alabama Chanin

This week’s FEEDBACK FRIDAY was with Alabama Chanin founder and creative director, the amazing Natalie Chanin. We talked about Natalie’s design journey, a sense of place and Alabama Chanin’s seed to shelf/cottage industry business model, the design process and working with natural dyes, as well as thoughts on the future of making. Watch the video: With a background in environmental and industrial design, Natalie has worked for 20 years building sustainable practices and community values into the design and making process through her business. You can follow along with the storytelling behind all of this on the Alabama Chanin Journal … Read more

Video From LIVE FEEDBACK FRIDAY: The Botanical Reclamation Project

Today, June 18th, we had such a special FEEDBACK FRIDAY treat with Guelph, Ontario based artist Anita Cazzola. Anita not only played banjo and sang our FEEDBACK FRIDAY theme song with her partner Sam, we got to hear her talk about her Botanical Reclamation project. Anita just launched her project which celebrates the resiliency of wild plants through naturally dyed textiles. The project also offers the community a chance to learn about local plant life, and the natural dye process through self-guided walks, weekly scavenger hunts, project livestreams, workshops, question and answer sessions, and artist talks with the help of … Read more

Video From LIVE FEEDBACK FRIDAY: Rust Dyeing With Samantha Verrone

This week, we’ve got video from our live FEEDBACK FRIDAY featuring rust dyeing with Samantha Verrone. Watch the video here: Read all the answers to the question from chat we didn’t get to here: FEEDBACK FRIDAY Samantha Verrone Samantha produces one of a kind home furnishings, clothing, accessories and tapestries. Inspired by antique Japanese Boro and Korean Pojagi and the various vintage and otherwise discarded textile remnants she finds in her travels, Samantha focuses on labor intensive rather than resource depleting production. Every piece is made by hand in her Bronx studio and is stocked in places like ABC Carpet … Read more

A Pantone Inspired Airbnb Fit For Color Enthusiasts

We haven’t acknowledged the Pantone color of the year enough so we’re glad to see others who are and in the most fun of applications. Stay tuned for a natural dye recipe we’ll be creating soon where you can achieve this color for your own design projects. According to Dezeen, “Pantone has collaborated with Airbnb to fill a London home with planting and projects that match its verdant 2017 colour of the year. “Pantone had announced the tone which it describes as a “tangy yellow-green”, as its pick for colour of the year in Decembe 2016. The annual selection is … Read more

Natural Dyes, Celestial Maps and Technology Partner for Exhibit

We love when natural dyes and technology come together and when it also involves celestial maps? Well, let’s just say some collaborations are a lot cooler than others. The Creator’s Project is one of our favorite daily reads and they write this: “Those in the northern hemisphere know that the North Star, Polaris, is a useful tool of navigation. But few know that, because of changes in Earth’s axial rotation, Polaris hasn’t always beenβ€”nor will it remainβ€”the North Star. This lies at the heart of a new exhibition titled Deep Future, which features robotically-drawn celestial maps of what the North … Read more

Mordant Monday: A Rainbow Compilation!

We wanted to compile all of our rainbow tutorials so you could have access to them all in the same place. We love creating them for you, and seeing the beautiful creations you make with your tutorials. Please tag us on social media so we can see what you make! Try making the rainbow yourself!

Organic Soybeans

MORDANT MONDAY: Whey As A Mordant?

We get mordant questions all the time at Botanical Colors so why not create Mordant Monday??? Got mordanting questions? Email [email protected] YOU ASKED: I started reading India Flint’s book Eco Colour. She mentioned that whey could be used as a mordant but didn’t say how. I do make cheese on occasion and am always looking for something to do with the whey. Have you ever used it? If so, how? KATHY ANSWERED: Whey is usually acidic and contains protein and minerals. It might be considered one of those ingredients that helps dye molecules attract to fibers, like casein (milk protein), … Read more

Sunday Visit: In Tangier With Hicham Bouzid

Every Sunday, Botanical Colors sits down for an interview with a luminary in the natural dye and textile world.Grab a cup of tea and settle in to learning about someone you never knew! Catch up on all our Sunday Visits here. Hicham Bouzid is a creative director, editor, and curator based in Tangier, Morocco. With over 13 years of experience collaborating with cultural institutions and foundations worldwide, his work delves into the intricate interplay of Morocco’s urban and social landscapes influenced by neoliberal policies over the past quarter-century. In 2016, Hicham co-founded Think Tanger, an innovative cultural organization working at … Read more

MORDANT MONDAY: How To Recharge Mordants & Assists

We get mordant questions all the time at Botanical Colors so why not create Mordant Monday??? Got mordanting questions? Email [email protected] YOU ASKED: I have mind-bending questions about the mordants that can be refreshed like aluminum acetate, aluminum sulfate and aluminum triformate. Is it different with differentΒ mordants?Β And what happens with the assists like soda ash or cream of tartar, if I put them together with the mordant, do I also need to recharge it as well with 25/50%? KATHY ANSWERED: Typically aluminum sulfate, aluminum potassium sulfate and aluminum acetate are refreshed at 50% and aluminum triformate is refreshed at 10%. … Read more