Indigo Archives - Botanical Colors

Harmonious and Humongous Color…

Above: each row represents a rainbow that the teams dyed. From top to bottom: Gallo Tannin, Cutch and Myrobalan I just returned from a 5 day workshop at Sanborn Mills Farm, a favorite place to teach natural dye classes. They cultivate a full dye garden just steps away from the dye studio, and the entire farm, animals, historical buildings, teaching facilities and workshops are endlessly inspiring. My workshop started out with a challenging, but modest proposition that we work in three teams and create 12 colors for each team, 36 colors total. Each group chose a palette and we got … Read more

MORDANT MONDAY: Indigo & Discharging Mordants

Mordant Monday is our Monday blog where we provide information about the most important step in natural dyeing! We were feeling the Indigo fever after Britt Boles workshop – Fresh Indigo Five ways, so we revived (no indigo pun intended) this Mordant Monday about Indigo & discharging mordants. YOU ASKED: My question involves the processes of indigo dyeing when combined with other plant dyes that have been mordanted with aluminum acetate. My understanding is that citric acid discharges the mordant and also neutralizes the alkalinity of indigo as a last step in finishing indigo dyed cloth. How would you go … Read more

Mordant Monday: In the clutches of Cutch Dye

Cutch Dye This week’s Mordant Monday explores another well known and important tannin: Cutch. Cutch is a wood dye from Senegalia catechu (formerly Acacia catechu), an acacia species that grows in South and Southeast Asia. The dye is both a colorant, and a traditional medicine. It is also the by-product from the manufacture of “katha”, which is a crystalline substance that is an ingredient in paan or betel nut leaf, which is an Indian mouth freshener and digestive. We’ve never tried paan, but we love cutch for its versatility and deep colors. It’s a sweet-smelling dye and the color yield … Read more

Mordant Monday: LIME GREEN

On this Saint Patrick’s Day, learn how to make this punchy lime green! We are pulling this exciting color back from our archives. Wink wink, you might remember it from this summer…Using weld and indigo, you can get awfully close to this punchy acid green. Natural dyes are often thought of as pastel or “soft” colors, but we’re here to help you make a hue that really packs a punch! This is the basic recipe Start with a mordanted cotton bandana, soak it in warm water for 30 minutes to thoroughly wet it out, and dip in a very light … Read more

Mordant Monday: Overdyeing: Indigo First, or Indigo Second?

Indigo first, or indigo second? We get mordant questions all the time at Botanical Colors so why not create Mordant Monday??? Got mordanting questions? Email [email protected] YOU ASKED: Do you always dye indigo first before overdyeing with another color? Does it make any difference? KATHY ANSWERED: When I was starting out, I was advised to dye with indigo first, rinse, mordant my fabric, and then dye with a mordant color second in order to create any type of compound color when indigo is involved. We largely agree with this as most of our production colors start with an indigo shade … Read more

Mordant Monday: Does Indigo Damage Mordants

We get mordant questions all the time at Botanical Colors so why not create Mordant Monday??? Got mordanting questions? Email [email protected] 2 light indigo dips on mordanted silk before immersing in exhaust dye baths to make pastels YOU ASKED: My question involves the processes of indigo dyeing when combined with other plant dyes that have been mordanted with aluminum acetate. My understanding is that citric acid discharges the mordant and also neutralizes the alkalinity of indigo as a last step in finishing indigo dyed cloth. How would you go about neutralizing indigo without discharging mordant? For some processes, I am … Read more

Sunday Visit: Prairie Underground

Sunday Visit is our Interview series where we sit down to interview exciting members of our community about their process, inspirations and learn about what makes them tick. Today we interview one of our collaborators and dye house clients Prairie Underground. We learn about the women behind the sustainable brand, how they got started and how they navigate the world of fashion and natural dyes. The photos from this series are a special behind the sneak peak of their upcoming Indigo collection we dyed for them in Seattle. They were taken by Elisa Clements Tell us your origin story, how … Read more

Mordant Monday: Creating Color In Tucson

We used raw dyestuffs: cochineal insects, coreopsis flowers, marigolds, extracts and two indigo vats (henna and fructose). I was very impressed how beautiful the colors came out! I was fortunate to teach in Tucson, Arizona last month for the Tucson Handweavers and Spinners Guild. This was my first time in Arizona and it was a wonderful experience. The dramatic desert landscape really commands your attention and the light just before sunset is luminous. The swatches are from a number of different dye baths and we mixed and matched colors to create 4-color palettes with an indigo dip at the end. … Read more

Tannin and Alum Mordant Experiments

I’m obsessed with using tannin and aluminum sulfate to create different color bases for both natural dyes and indigo. What I love about this technique is that this is a great mordant option and it’s a lot of fun to see the colors develop and take on the subtle differences between the different tannin bases. This time, we’re working with a lightweight, pre-mordanted, organic cotton suitable for stitching and quilting. We mordanted 4 fat quarters, each with a different tannin, and then tried a few dye experiments using Marigold Mix, Madder extract and Indigo. Start with our Mordanted Fat quarter … Read more

IN PERSON VIEWING PARTY! Livestream Britt Boles’ Fresh Indigo Five Ways in Seattle!

Are you interested in using fresh indigo but didn’t have time to grow your own? We have a crop of indigo to share and invite you to join our live streaming event in Seattle. We’ll join the Zoom workshop as a group, project Britt on a large wall, and explore fresh leaf indigo. We’ll supply enough indigo to follow along with Britt and try the techniques that she covers, plus you will leave with your own indigo plant and tons of inspiration for future fresh leaf fun! You will receive a thriving indigo plant, fabric swatches, use of our tools and studio, and access to the online recording after the session. Seats are limited!