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Sunday Visit: Katrina Rodabaugh, Mending Matters

Sunday Visit is our interview series where we speak with an incredible maker in our community and learn about what makes them tick. Katrina Rodabaugh is an author and artist working at the intersection of sustainability, craft, and design. Using visible mending, natural dyes, and textile redesign in fashion, art, and home. She combines her training in sustainability with her experience in fiber arts to build eco-friendly solutions for modern lives. We sit down with her to learn about her practice. Katrina, you have been a friend of BC for a long time. Tell us a little bit about your … Read more

EXHIBIT: The Drawing Center Features ‘Thread Lines’

IF IN NYC….”This group exhibition features sixteen artists who engage in sewing, knitting, and weaving to create a wide-range of works that activate the expressive and conceptual potential of line and illuminate affinities between the mediums of textile and drawing. Multi-generational in scope, Thread Lines brings together those pioneers who—challenging entrenched modernist hierarchies—first unraveled the distinction between textile and art with a new wave of contemporary practitioners who have inherited and expanded upon their groundbreaking gestures. More info here on the Drawing Center site. Image: Ellen Lesperance (b. 1971, Minneapolis, MN) at the Drawing Center

You Asked, Kathy Answered: Indigo Heaters + Baskets

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 questions@botanicalcolors with your plea for help! YOU ASKED: I am doing some indigo dyeing and a friend mentioned using an indigo bucket heater to keep the temperature of the water at the correct temperature. She mentioned you sold them, but can’t find them on your website. Do you stock them? If so, where can I see them? If not, … Read more

Gearing Up to Sew Some Seeds at the Textile Arts Center

Last night we had a lot of fun at the Textile Arts Center in Manhattan. As you might have seen here and there on social media, we are the natural dye sponsor for the upcoming Sewing Seeds fundraiser. If you are in New York City and can attend, this is going to be a great event not just in terms of the most amazing naturally dyed textile installation “Tumbleweed Colony” from Lost in Fiber’s Abigail Doan, but a wonderful event to meet friends old and new. To purchase tickets for the event at the Textile Arts Center, go here and … Read more

Botanical Colors Gets More Indigo Love

I recently interviewed Natalie Chanin on how hard it is to run a business and was happy she name dropped Botanical Colors! See a portion of the interview below and to read the article in its entirety, go to the Brooklyn Fashion+Design Accelerator. How long have you used natural dyes and is your Indigo Collection your first collection showcasing them? In 2008, we began collaborating with an organization called Goods of Conscience, a non-profit that was based in The Bronx at that time. This was our first foray into the world of natural dyes. We expanded our natural dye selection … Read more

MORDANT MONDAY: Alum Sulfate & Acid-Loving Ornamentals?

We get mordant questions all the time at Botanical Colors so why not create Mordant Monday??? Got mordanting questions? Email [email protected] What is Mordanting? Mordanting is the most important process of preparing fibers to accept color. Using a mordant helps to ensure the most durable and long-lasting colors. With the exception of indigo (as a vat dye, it does not require a mordant), this is not an optional step. However, there are many different mordants you can use. Deciding which mordant to use comes down to the types of fibers you want to dye and how much time or energy … Read more

Video: Live Q&A On Aquarelle Liquid Dyes

We have lots of people that buy our Aquarelle liquid dyes and just as many with questions on how to use them. Each Aquarelle liquid natural dye is pre-extracted from a leaf, root, bark or other natural source and can combine easily to produce beautiful shades. They can also be used to thicken with Print Paste Thickener for printing, painting and other surface design applications.Watch the video recording here to learn something new! FEEDBACK FRIDAY questions on liquid dyes: Do you mix your liquid dyes together in the pot or always dye one first then overdye with the darker color? … Read more

FEEDBACK FRIDAY Goes Live March 27th

Join us this week, March 27th, 9am Pacific, for a live FEEDBACK FRIDAY! Let’s social distance ourselves from the realities of what’s outside our homes and talk all things natural dyes. What could be better? If you are not familiar with FEEDBACK FRIDAY, every week, we are emailed with questions from our natural dye community. Weekly, all of your burning questions are answered by natural dyer in chief, Kathy Hattori, Founder of Botanical Colors. Both Kathy and Amy DuFault, Botanical Colors’ Sustainability and Social Media Director will be on hand to moderate and answer questions this week. Hopefully, the two … Read more

Video From Live FEEDBACK FRIDAY: MAIDA

This week on FEEDBACK FRIDAY, we welcomed Maida Branch, founder and director of MAIDA, a collective that supports the growth of Indigenous artists and preservation of their homelands through sustainable business practices. Watch the recording below. Maida Branch was born and raised in New Mexico and is of Pueblo, Ute, Genízara descent (Dilia & Mora, New Mexico) – her family has been living on Pueblo Territory since time immemorial. Inspired by her family and the land from which they came, she founded MAIDA in 2017 – a collective of Indigenous and Indo-hispano artists. Artists stories are told by Maida Branch … Read more

Video From LIVE FEEDBACK FRIDAY: Elena Phipps

This week’s FEEDBACK FRIDAY was with Elena Phipps whose talk focused on the art history of cochineal. It also broke all of our FEEDBACK FRIDAY records with 516 RSVPS? Go Elena! Watch the video recording here: Elena’s presentation traced the origins of this special red color in the Americas and its role in global trade from the 16th century. during her extensive time at the Metropolitan Museum which she says “allowed her to develop a broad view of the range of textiles that had been dyed with cochineal, and working with scientists at the museum, we were able to test … Read more