hard water Archives - Botanical Colors

You Asked, Kathy Answered: What IS Calcium Carbonate?

YOU ASKED: May I ask what you mean by calcium carbonate? I read in your description of “calcium carbonate” you compare it to chalk. This confuses me because chalk is caso4•(H2O) while calcium carbonate is caco3. KATHY ANSWERED: What we call “chalk” in the US is Calcium Carbonate – CaC03, a powdery white material. The formula that you reference is Calcium Sulfate and it may also be called “chalk” but in the US, we commonly refer to it as “gypsum”. Calcium carbonate is used to mark soccer fields, as a dietary calcium supplement, an ingredient in antacids, and building materials! … Read more

FEEDBACK FRIDAY: This Week in Natural Dye Questions

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’ve always used my tap water to dye but have just started using rain barrels to collect water I will use for dyeing-can you tell me what differences you have found in using different types of water? Water is a significant factor in natural dye results. Water that is highly mineralized with calcium, magnesium and/or iron will … Read more