natural dye Archives - Botanical Colors

A Nerd’s Guide to Mordanting at Sanborn Mills

A Nerd’s Guide to Mordanting at Sanborn Mills This is the nerd’s guide to mordants – what they are, why they are important and how they are used in natural dyeing. Everyone wants to create long-lasting and beautiful plant color and the best way to do that is to mordant properly. The class will experiment with the most popular plant-based tannins and alum accumulators, mineral salt mordants and other binders to see the effects on animal and plant fibers. Each mordant variable will be dyed so that we can see results and we will build a reference folio for students to … Read more

Sara Buscaglia Of Farm & Folk Teaches Applique Dream Quilts

Sara Buscaglia of wildly popular Farm & Folk has captured our imagination with her beautifully designed quilts and color work using natural dyes that she grows on her farm in Durango, Colorado. Each piece tells a story about her commitment to farming, land stewardship, and the joy and dignity of hand work. We are so pleased to have her return and teach a 5-day quilting workshop in Seattle with us in February 2025! This year’s focus will be on applique to create a quilt approximately 30×30 inches. Applique is a needlework technique where fabric and motifs are stitched onto whole or pieced cloth, allowing the quilter to create beautiful, free and figurative designs on the quilt. Each participant will work with a palette of naturally dyed color created especially for this workshop. Sara will demonstrate several applique methods, guide color choices and motifs. Join us for a wonderful 5-day creative studio session dyeing fabrics, designing colorways and making hand-stitched quilts!

Sunday Visit: The Storytellers Studio Coat with Jody Alexander

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 the inimitable Jody Alexander who has an upcoming workshop with us! Grab a cup of tea and settle in to learn about someone you never knew! Catch up on all our Sunday Visits here. We are so excited to host you this October! Can you tell us a little bit about the origin of the Studio Storyteller Coat? I love the ethos of mending and repair as a thread that ties your work together. We … Read more

Eileen Fisher Renew Seattle Community Indigo Dip

Community Indigo Dip at Eileen Fisher Renew Seattle June 8 // 10am – 2pm EF Renew // 4860 Rainier Ave S, Seattle, WA 98118 We are excited to host another Community Indigo Dip at Eileen Fisher Renew. You are invited to bring your own garment to dip and we will have simple shibori tools available to use. Please bring a small item. No chunky sweaters or bedding and nothing synthetic as it will not be able to take the dye.

Sunday Visit: Arounna Khounnoraj and the Origins of @Bookhou

Every Sunday, Botanical Colors sits down for an interview with a luminary in the natural dye, textile and art world. Grab a cup of tea and settle in to learning about someone you never knew! Catch up on all our Sunday Visits here. This week we sit down with Arounna to learn about how she got started with her husband and how she grew her amazing community to what it is today. Can you tell us your origin story? How did Bookhou begin? I finished art school with a background in sculpture and ceramics and I started doing some teaching at … Read more

Our Top 8 Picks For The Most Durable Natural Dyes

We get asked A LOT about which are the most durable natural dyes in our shop. By durable, we mean dyes that excel in both light and washfastness. But as we always say to people when they ask us to point them in that direction, there’s lots of questions we have for YOU around your lifestyle and wash practices and natural dyes. For instance, do you use a harsh detergent? Do you wash your dyed clothing daily? Do you hang dry or put on high heat in the dryer? Is it a silk blouse or a cotton napkin? How often … Read more

You Asked, Kathy Answered: Indigo For Soap Making

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: Indigo is often used as a natural colorant in soap making and I have been using your organic indigo powder for the past couple of years. As I’ve been researching about processing my fresh indigo plants to turn into powder I’ve started wondering about using indigo powder for soap making and … Read more

MORDANT MONDAY: What’s The Best Mordant Duo For A Cotton T-shirt?

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 had a question about your aluminum triformate. I am going to dye 20 cotton t-shirts and thought the aluminum triformate would be a good option for mordanting. I am wondering if I should still use a tannin? Do you think it’s the best option for mordanting cotton items that will be washed often? KATHY ANSWERED: Yes, tannin really helps with wash and lightfastness. You have a wide choice of tannins: gallo-tannin, tara powder, chestnut, myrobalan, pomegranate … Read more

Sunday Visit: In Tangier With Yto Barrada

Every Sunday, Botanical Colors sits down for an interview with a luminary in the natural dye and textile world. Today we get to meet Yto Barrada, a Moroccan-French artist recognized for her multidisciplinary investigations of cultural phenomena and historical narratives. In 2006, Yto founded the artist-run Cinémathèque de Tanger, North Africa’s first cinema cultural center, now an internationally appreciated institution. She also founded The Mothership in Tangier, a radical eco-campus for artists, makers, and researchers growing, making, and learning natural dyes and indigenous traditions, and a place for experimental collective artistic practice through art residencies and workshops. Her work has … 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