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: What’s the difference between colorfastness in natural dyes vs synthetic? Based on the fact that we have museums filled with tapestries and other textiles from hundreds of years ago, why is there such debate that natural dyes last? This is an interesting question with a complex answer.  Color, light and washfastness commonly refers to how well a … Read more

How to mordant

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: How do you keep dyes from bleeding into non-mordanted areas? I am finding that excess dyes deposit into white areas and I can’t seem to get them to wash out. Keeping undyed areas intact really depends on the technique you are using. If you are doing shibori work, it’s important to create tight resists. A loose resist … Read more

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: Are all synthetic dyes made from petroleum? Synthetic dyes are a huge category of colorants and they are derived mainly from benzene or benzene-like chemicals, which are among the primary petrochemicals. When they were first developed, they were called coal-tar dyes as they were developed from coal. Check out this article on our blog that covered this … Read more

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 often hear about “fugitive color.” Can you tell me why some colors like turmeric can latch onto fabric and why others like beets can’t? The terms “fast” and “fugitive” (not Fast and Furious) refer to how durable a natural color is to light, heat, and washing.  “Fast” means that the color is durable and its strength … Read more