John Marshall Archives - Botanical Colors

Mordant Monday: I’m Soy Happy!

In today’s Mordant Monday (excuse the awful pun – I found it online), we check out how to use soy as a binder for natural dyes and pigments. Before the widespread use of acrylic paints and mediums, artists had ingredients from the natural world to use for painting and printing on paper and canvas. They used a wide range of natural binders including tree sap, milk, egg, oils, minerals and other substances that helped pigments stay attached to substrates. In Japan, soybeans are the most common binder for textile work, and it serves as a sizing to add body to … Read more

Sunday Visit: Salvation Through Soy with John Marshall

For Sunday Visit, Botanical Colors sits down for an interview with a luminary in the natural dye, textile and art world. This week we visit with none other than internationally known and revered textile artist John Marshall, an expert in Japanese textile techniques and all around funny guy. Grab a cup of tea and settle in to learn about someone you never knew! Catch up on all our Sunday Visits here. Cara: I had a really fun time visiting your website and learning a little bit about your history, You have had an amazing practice and career. Can you tell us … Read more

You Asked, Kathy Answered: Hapa-Zome + Overdyeing Indigo

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: When doing hapa-zome with fresh indigo leaves, do I need to treat the fabric with soda ash prior to hammering the leaves? KATHY ANSWERED: I have not heard about using soda ash with fresh indigo printing. The instructions and method that I’ve used is to get a piece of silk fabric, … Read more

Video From LIVE FEEDBACK FRIDAY: Natalie Stopka

This week’s FEEDBACK FRIDAY was with natural dye artist and educator Natalie Stopka. Watch the video recording here: From Natalie (chat box questions answered and more!) >Clothlet Resources: The Materials and Techniques of Medieval Painting by Daniel V. Thompson, 1956. An Anonymous 14th Century Treatise De Arte Illuminandi, The Technique of Manuscript Illumination translated by Daniel Varney Thompson, Jr, and George Heard Hamilton, 1933. (full text online) Looking back over my notes, I did pre-mordant my linen clothlets before applying the stain. Because of the weak attraction between linen and alum, it acts primarily to stabilize the botanical colorant rather than bind it to … Read more

Video From LIVE FEEDBACK FRIDAY: With Katazome & Tsutsugaki Artist John Marshall

This week, we’ve got video from our live FEEDBACK FRIDAY featuring katazome (stencil dyeing) and tsutsugaki (cone drawing) artist John Marshall. John Marshall is an American fiber artist specializing in natural dyes and the traditional Japanese techniques of katazome (stencil dyeing) and tsutsugaki (cone drawing). He is internationally noted for his use of color and line to create truly unique one-of-a-kind art-to-wear, turning traditionally inspired aesthetics into contemporary treasures for daily life. As a teacher he is recognized for his ability to adapt traditional recipes and methods to suit local climates, resources, and temperaments – and for his ability to … Read more

FEEDBACK FRIDAY: Indigo Vat pH, Painting & Reusing Mordant Baths

This week on FEEDBACK FRIDAY: The science of pH and your indigo vat, painting with indigo flowers and reusing that mordant bath

FEEDBACK FRIDAY: This Week in Natural Dye Questions

This week: Info to make a dried indigo leaf vat and wait, can you use indigo for hair and soaps??

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 would like to be able to make variegated yarn from a finished skein (as opposed to spinning my yarn from various colored fibers, which is what I do now). I’ve done most of my dyeing on wool that I spin and then weave, but would like to dye cotton and hemp fabric. I am not able … Read more