Indigo Archives - Page 12 of 13

Blue Alchemy, a Documentary on Indigo’s Rich History

According to the BLUE ALCHEMY: Stories of Indigo site, the documentary is a feature-length documentary about indigo, “a blue  dye that has captured the human imagination for millennia. It is also about people who are reviving indigo in projects that are intended to improve life in their communities, preserve cultural integrity, improve the environment, and bring beauty to the world.” Mary Lance filmed BLUE ALCHEMY in India, Japan, Bangladesh, Mexico, El Salvador, Nigeria, and the USA. Have you seen it? Thoughts? BLUE ALCHEMY: Stories of Indigo Trailer from Mary Lance on Vimeo.

Olderbrother+Botanical Colors= Natural Dye Heaven

We’re so excited to see our Botanical Colors natural dyes featured with one of our favorite customers on Cool Hunting! Cool Hunting writes: “Olderbrother, the new clothing line started by Portland, Oregon-based designer Bobby Bonaparte and LA-based Max Kingery, has a whimsical, minimalist aesthetic that is partly influenced by the duo’s fascination with Japanese design and partly by their sly, irreverent attitude towards fashion and clothing. The brand’s 2015 autumn/winter collection, called “Enthusiasm and Naps,” is comprised of boxy, unisex and deceptively casual garments like sweatshirts, T-shirts and sweatpants, along with two wool coats, button-down oxfords, polos and a gabardine … Read more

Organic Jeans, Naturally Sourced & Indigo Dyed in Northern California

The San Francisco Chronicle writes: “Rebecca Burgess is on a quest for the perfect jeans. And by perfect, she means a good fit, but also something much deeper than that. Her denim has to have a good conscience. Her dream pants need to be made without heavy metal-based synthetic dyes that pollute the environment, woven with non-GMO organic cotton, and constructed using materials sourced within 150 miles of her west Marin home. The garment must be handcrafted by local artists, not machines or destitute laborers in a faraway sweatshop. It’s a tall order. So tall, she had to fill it … Read more

Scattergood Friends School Workshop a Success!

Our 2 day natural dye class called Colors of the Prairie at Scattergood Friends School, a Quaker boarding school in West Branch, Iowa was so much fun. We walked with naturalists, did some prairie crawls, played in the classroom with indigo dipping and swam in the sweetest little pond every night. Here are some shots of our time there. If ever in West Branch, go say hello! Seriously, these are the nicest people ever.

This Indigo Research Could Make Blue Jeans Green

According to Phys.org, Berkeley bioengineering professor John Dueber has studied the chemical steps plants use to naturally make indigo, and he thinks he has found an environmentally green way for the industry to churn out the dye without the use of toxic compounds. “When plant leaves are healthy, a chemical precursor to indigo, called indican, is caged within a sugar molecule and isolated from the rest of the cell in an organelle. Only when leaves are damaged is indican released from this compartment. The sugar protective cage is removed, allowing a chemical change that makes indigo. Green leaves turn blue. … Read more

The 225 Year Old Cyanometer That Measures Blue

The website Colossal writes: “Hot on the heels of a post earlier this week about centuries-old guide for mixing watercolors, I stumbled onto this 18th century instrument designed to measure the blueness of the sky called a Cyanometer. The simple device was invented in 1789 by Swiss physicist Horace-Bénédict de Saussure and German naturalist Alexander von Humboldt who used the circular array of 53 shaded sections in experiments above the skies over Geneva, Chamonix and Mont Blanc. The Cyanometer helped lead to a successful conclusion that the blueness of the sky is a measure of transparency caused by the amount … Read more

Supermarket Colors: Amazing Dyes Just Waiting To Be Found

This fun article on Sweet Paul Magazine is a fresh look at how common food dyes found around the home as well as natural dyes can work together. (Just the photography had us hook, line and sinker…) We’ve recently put up new dye instructions on the site including this easy indigo vat recipe so go explore and see what fun new projects you can come up with!

Botanical Colors Gets More Indigo Love

I recently interviewed Natalie Chanin on how hard it is to run a business and was happy she name dropped Botanical Colors! See a portion of the interview below and to read the article in its entirety, go to the Brooklyn Fashion+Design Accelerator. How long have you used natural dyes and is your Indigo Collection your first collection showcasing them? In 2008, we began collaborating with an organization called Goods of Conscience, a non-profit that was based in The Bronx at that time. This was our first foray into the world of natural dyes. We expanded our natural dye selection … Read more

Dyeing for Dummies: Natural Dye Poster Child-Indigo

Indigo has a long standing history of heavy-duty power in terms of economics and trade and is probably one of the most talked and written about dyes in the natural dye world. We love the color blue and all its moodiness. It’s also very in for fall 14. Get ready for the navy explosion! For this Dyeing for Dummies, I have put not only myself but husband and daughter in the cross hairs of looking foolish, over exuberant, and dummy-like. (Side note, they had a blast and refuse to be called dummies.) We used all of Botanical Colors’ dyes and … Read more

For Tiina Laakkonen and the Elder Statesman, Blue Is the Warmest Color

“As anyone familiar with her styling work, her Amagansett, N.Y., boutique, Tiina, or her nearby home already knows, Tiina Laakkonen really, really loves indigo. “Blue is my favorite color and indigo is the most natural, alive version of it,” she says. “I used to live in black clothes when I lived in New York, but they seem too hard in both the light and the life out East.” Now, Laakkonen has teamed up with one of the designers whose work she carries in her store, Greg Chait of the Elder Statesman, to create limited editions of four Elder Statesman styles in her signature … Read more