Botanical Colors Archives - Page 12 of 39

VIDEO: Botanical Colors Talks Invasive Plants + Color

For this year’s New York Textile Month, the team at Botanical Colors talked about Invasive Plants + Color. Invasive plants, we see them roadside, in highway medians, standing as sentries in drought-tolerant fields and abandoned lots. We call them “invasive,” adversely affecting the habitats and beneficial plants we do want to thrive. The fact is, they’re not going anywhere so what if we worked with them to create color on textiles? Join the Botanical Colors team as they take you through a visual journey from Seattle to Cape Cod to share experiences and recent color journeys with this type of … Read more

Video of Live Q&A For (New Cold Water Mordant) Aluminum Triformate

Check out our video recording and Q&A for our new cold water mordant Aluminum Triformate! Botanical Colors’ President Kathy Hattori took us on a one hour review on and demo using aluminum triformate. She showed show results of tests and experiments using the cold water mordant and answered lots of questions. Watch the recording here. Shop Aluminum Triformate here About: Aluminum triformate is a room temperature mordant for all natural fibers including wool, silk, cotton, hemp and linen. It also works on a gpL (grams per Liter) calculation or a weight of fiber (WOF) percentage and we’ve used it successfully with … Read more

Video From Live FEEDBACK FRIDAY: Mushrooms + Textile Design With Ximena Curiel

Last week on FEEDBACK FRIDAY, we welcomed Ximena Curiel who told us a personal story about her path as an artist and all about her exciting work with mushrooms and textile design! Ximena Curiel is a Product designer with a MSc in Biomimicry currently performing field and laboratory research on fungal pigments. Ximena says since she was young, “she experienced the kindness of nature, while growing up in the jungles of southeast Mexico.” From first hand observations, she’s watched how ecosystems have degraded while her love for all living things lead her to nurture connections between biology and design. She … Read more

Video From FEEDBACK FRIDAY: Social Artist + Activist Ellie Irons

Last week on FEEDBACK FRIDAY, we welcomed socially engaged artist and educator Ellie Irons. Ellie talked about her Feral and Invasive Pigments project, a public fieldwork, writing, and studio-based project that revolves around making watercolor paint from the leaves, petals, and berries of the spontaneous plant beings (aka weeds) who thrive in areas heavily impacted by urbanization, industrialization, and climate change. Watch the recording below. Links: Instagram Website About Ellie Irons: Ellie Irons is an artist and educator living and working on Mohican land in current-day Troy, New York, USA. From foraged watercolor paintings to un-lawning experiments, her work combines … Read more

VIDEO From FEEDBACK FRIDAY: Marta Abbott

Last week was our 100th episode of FEEDBACK FRIDAY and we welcomed Rome-based, Czech-American artist Marta Abbott. Marta uses “organic, botanical materials to extract and convey that which she finds essential to the human experience of nature and beauty. Marta does this through combing concept with intuition, elements of control with those of contained chaos, and with eyes scanning both earth and sky, seeking ways to interpret that which links the two.” Watch the recording here: Marta’s website Instagram In the Studio: Marta Abbott Shop our dye inks here! ARTIST STATEMENT Marta Alexandra Abbott is a Czech-American artist in Rome. … Read more

Celebrate Juneteenth Through The Stories of 8 Black Natural Dye Artists

This year, as we celebrate and honor the (now federally recognized) Juneteenth holiday, we look back on the stories eight black, natural dye artists have shared with us. As we all continue to learn and grow from these stories, we urge you to reach out within your regional natural dye and fiber communities to usher in more diversity. If we have learned anything from FEEDBACK FRIDAY, it’s that we can tell so many stories through natural dyeing that gather more people, not always our choir, to get a little closer to us to just listen…and hopefully sing. About Juneteenth: From … Read more

Construction Techniques with Aboubakar Fofana: Create a Pair of Stripcloth Trousers

Video From Aboubakar Fofana (LIVE) Bamako Studio Tour!

Last time on FEEDBACK FRIDAY, we welcomed back Malian artist, educator, indigo farmer and friend, Aboubakar Fofana. Aboubakar took us for a live tour of his Bamako studio where we saw him harvest indigo, do some indigo dyeing, got to meet his artisans and see all the amazingness that is Aboubakar on his home turf. We received so many nice emails from people expressing how wonderful this episode was. You won’t want to miss it. More about Aboubakar and his summer residency with us: Botanical Colors is pleased to announce that we are hosting Aboubakar Fofana for a month-long 2022 … Read more

VIDEO From FEEDBACK FRIDAY: Zak Foster Quilts

Last week on FEEDBACK FRIDAY, we had the amazing, thoughtful, community building, textile whisperer, Zak Foster of Zak Foster Quilts. Raised in rural North Carolina and now living in Brooklyn, New York, Zak is a self-taught artist whose work draws on Southern textile traditions while incorporating found fabrics and natural dyes with an eye for sustainability. He practices an approach to design that is intuitive and improvisational and he is drawn to preserving the stories of quilts and specializes in memory quilts and burial quilts. His work has been featured in various magazines, websites, and galleries. His online community, The … Read more

Video From FEEDBACK FRIDAY: Masagana Flower Farm & Studio

Last week on FEEDBACK FRIDAY, we had Manitoba, Canada based Lourdes Still talking about the Masagana Flower Farm & Studio. According to Here’s How It’s Done: First-hand Stories From Enterprising Women In Manitoba, “Lourdes Still is the first to admit it’s a winding road that landed her in business. She’s gone from big-city living in the Philippines to rural life in south-eastern Manitoba. From growing flowers on the balcony of her city apartment to launching Masagana Flower Farm & Studio. There’s no doubt that it takes ambition and a lot of hard work to run a small scale flower farm … Read more

Video From FEEDBACK FRIDAY: Fish Skin Tanner + Dyer Lotta Nelson-Rahme

Last week we welcomed world-renowned fish skin tanner and dyer, Sweden-based Lotta Nelson-Rahme. Lotta took us on an interesting journey into how she got into tanning and her travels around the world in search of knowledge. She also showed some leather work and a spotlight on an exhibition she recently made to honor and thank the women who share their knowledge with her. Lotta also went into more detail about tanning fish skins and how she dyes the skins using heather, rhubarb, pine cones and iron. We got lots of emails and messages on social media about how much you … Read more