Logwood 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: 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

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

You Asked, Kathy Answered: Getting Logwood To Be Lightfast

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: Thank you so much for all your wonderful information about plant dyes. I was wondering if I have to heat up wool yarn in the logwood dye bath? Is the heating process necessary to protect the lightfast properties or to achieve a deeper color? If I would like to use the same … Read more

Sunday Visit: Mystical Stitching With Christi Johnson

Every Sunday, Botanical Colors sits down for an interview with a luminary in the natural dye and textile world. This week on Sunday Visit we welcome textile artist and author Christi Johnson. Christi’s textile studio is based in the foothills of the Catskills in New York. The studio provides functional pieces that are thoughtfully made, as well as serves as a platform to teach skills in sewing, embroidery, and natural dyeing . Her book Mystical Stitches explores embroidery as a tool for personal empowerment and magical embellishment. Speaking of magical things, you can grab a copy of Mystical Stitches plus … Read more

MORDANT MONDAY: Mordanting To Make Green

We get mordant questions all the time at Botanical Colors so why not create Mordant Monday??? Got mordanting questions? Email [email protected] YOU ASKED: I just ordered both logwood and weld and want to get purple and green on wool yarn based on this information on your site. Do I need to do some pre-mordanting with alum? The website has the intriguing recommendation to use a bit of soda ash with neutral water, to get a better purple. Does this mean an acid pre-mordant would not be advised? It’s hand spun wool for warp so would be better slightly acidic rather than … Read more

You Asked, Kathy Answered: A Strange Result With Logwood

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! Thanks to Amy Tucker Studio for this week’s questions! YOU ASKED: I was instructing an eco printing workshop this weekend, and I was using logwood for the carrier blankets and I had a strange occurrence. I attached some photos to show what it looked like and what happened. I extracted the color from … Read more

You Asked, Kathy Answered: Reusing a Liquid Logwood Dye Bath

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: I am learning to use dye blankets in my botanical prints. I want to make a logwood pot that would be used multiple times. Here are my varied questions: Thanks for your time. LOVE your website and helpful info, to say nothing of the Beginners Dye Kit. Taking the cold water … Read more

MORDANT MONDAY: Moody Hues In Black & Blue

We get mordant questions all the time at Botanical Colors so why not create Mordant Monday??? Got mordanting questions? Email [email protected] YOU ASKED: I was pleased to see the color range of your sappanwood extract on your blog since those blue-violet to gray hues are what I’m trying to achieve. You compare the color fastness to logwood, and I know that logwood doesn’t take well to cotton. Will sappanwood work on a 85% cotton 15% cashmere blend yarn and what should I mordant with? KATHY ANSWERED: You can mordant with tannin and aluminum sulfate or aluminum triformate and symplocos to … Read more

yellow-green fabric in a stainless steel dyepot

Making Green with Logwood and Weld

It’s not often that you can combine yellow and purple to make green, but weld extract and logwood will yield interesting results, depending on the strength of the weld and logwood combination. We have tested this on wool and our recipes are as follows. Feel free to experiment with other fibers and proportions of dyes! Chartreuse Use 3% weld on the weight of fabric (WOF) and dissolve in hot water. Do not add any auxiliaries such as calcium or soda ash. Measure and add 0.25% WOF logwood extract to the weld and stir well. Add this mixture to a dye … Read more