Studio time is always inspiring and we were more than happy to welcome Liz Spencer of The Dogwood Dyer from Brooklyn a few weeks ago. Liz creates hand made accessories and garments from ethically sourced fibers and dyestuffs from the country and along roadsides surrounding New York City. She also grows some of her dyes […]
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Social Change Through Indigo, Shibori and EILEEN FISHER
This past weekend we had the pleasure of collaborating with EILEEN FISHER’S GREEN EILEEN team at a workshop in Seattle at the Hillman City Collaboratory. The Collaboratory is a center for the arts and an incubator for social change with a mission to create a space of transformation including the built environment and the programming […]
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271 Years Before Pantone-Every Color Imaginable in an 800-Page Book
Colossal writes: “In 1692 an artist known only as “A. Boogert” sat down to write a book in Dutch about mixing watercolors. Not only would he begin the book with a bit about the use of color in painting, but would go on to explain how to create certain hues and change the tone by […]
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MALVAR=STEWART’s BLUEPRINT Collection
Celeste Malvar-Stewart, the designer of Columbus, Ohio based MALVAR=STEWART creates “non-seasonal lines of women’s clothing,” using salvaged fabrics and local natural dyes that do not follow the standard fashion concept of “this season’s color palette.” They also focus on unconventional design that is thoughtful towards the environment at every stage of the garment’s life cycle, without […]
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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 […]
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Madison Wool and Wildwood Farm Host a Natural Dye Weekend
We had so much fun this past weekend in Madison, Connecticut at Madison Wool and Wildwood Farm’s natural dye weekend! Participants had their own personal natural dye journeys using both the classical, historical dyes and some surprising new ones (think walnut sludge and pokeberries). We also worked with some of Botanical Colors’ ancient raw dyestuffs […]
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DIY: Indigo Dye with Cara Marie Piazza
Our good friend and Botanical Colors customer, textile artist Cara Marie Piazza, was recently featured in Gardenista using our rich indigo. Writer Sophia Moreno-Bunge caught up with Cara in her studio and wrote: “Indigo is an ancient color, a natural dye extracted from a plant of the same name, and the only true blue dye […]
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Interview: Appalatch Apparel Sees Natural Dyes As An Ethical & Environmental Bonus
We are so excited to announce our recent collaboration with Appalatch Clothing. Appalatch told us, "One glaring place that we would love to improve upon is the use of natural instead of synthetic dyes which we know is more toxic to people and the environment. Unfortunately, we haven't found an American industrial dye house that [...] Continue Reading -
Clothing to Dye For: The Guardian Features Botanical Colors
It's no surprise that the fashion industry is coming under close scrutiny for damage done to our most precious resource: water. According to an article in Treehugger, a single mill in China can use 200 tons of water for each ton of fabric it dyes; many rivers run with the colors of the season as [...] Continue Reading -
Botanical Colors Joins Makers Row’s Roster of U.S. Manufacturers
Do you know about Maker’s Row? Well, Botanical Colors just got listed on it and we are so proud to be part of their online database for U.S. manufacturers. Maker’s Row wants to make it easier for businesses to access and produce their goods from companies in the United States. To help with that, the […]
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