dye bath Archives - Botanical Colors

You Asked, Kathy Answered: Do I Mordant With Saxon Blue?

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 [email protected] with your plea for help! YOU ASKED: I am writing you an email because I have a question about the Saxon blue liquid. I am about to use it to dye wool fiber, and I am asking if I need to mordant my wool fiber. If I don’t need to that would be nice but if I have … Read more

You Asked, Kathy Answered: Canning Dyes

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: Today I picked the last of the Goldenrod from our pasture and am wondering if it is possible to make an extract from the dye? I am familiar with lake pigments but understand that is not the same thing as an extract and I won’t be able use it for dyeing … Read more

FEEDBACK FRIDAY: This Week in Natural Dye Questions

This week: How to start a natural dye garden, where to train in natural dyeing and how to extract color from eucalyptus.

FEEDBACK FRIDAY: This Week in Natural Dye Questions

Image: Honest Alchemy Each week, we are emailed with questions from our natural dye community asking simple and complex questions that we thought might be worth sharing. Here are a handful from this week answered by natural dyer in chief, Kathy Hattori, Founder of Botanical Colors: I am dyeing logwood on wool and only getting a brown color-what is happening? The rich purple color from logwood can be affected by cream of tartar. If you normally mordant with cream of tartar, try omitting it in the mordant process. You may also enhance logwood by adding a pinch (less than 1/8th … Read more