Natural Dyes

We had so much fun this past weekend in Madison, Connecticut at Madison Wool and Wildwood Farm’s natural dye weekend! Participants had their own personal natural dye journeys using both the classical, historical dyes and some surprising new ones (think walnut sludge and pokeberries).  We also worked with some of Botanical  Colors’ ancient raw dyestuffs […]

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Last week at New York Fashion Week, Botanical Colors customer Titania Inglis, showcased her collection “Tessellation,” at the Standard hotel in Manhattan. For her S/S 14 collection, Inglis says she was particularly inspired by both the Danish-Icelandic installation artist Olafur Eliasson and renowned American architect and futurist Bucky Fuller. Botanical Colors was at the show […]

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In 1997, Stefania Isaacson opened her business, Handspun by Stefania and quickly realized she needed to learn how to dye fibers to create beautiful colors for her yarn.  She discovered natural dyes and began to concoct unusual and striking combinations of spinning fibers and hand spun yarns. Now after many years she has written a [...] Continue Reading

We are so excited to announce our recent collaboration with Appalatch Clothing. Appalatch told us, "One glaring place that we would love to improve upon is the use of natural instead of synthetic dyes which we know is more toxic to people and the environment. Unfortunately, we haven't found an American industrial dye house that [...] Continue Reading

It's no surprise that the fashion industry is coming under close scrutiny for damage done to our most precious resource: water. According to an article in Treehugger, a single mill in China can use 200 tons of water for each ton of fabric it dyes; many rivers run with the colors of the season as [...] Continue Reading

We were so excited that LISSA the shop contacted us for an interview! LISSA hopes to be an online leader for selling a curated collection of eco-conscious clothing for stylish women, “for that every day, relaxed elegance. Not too granola, nothing too fancy.” Part of Lissa’s eco-formula for success will be opting for clothing made […]

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I was fortunate to work with Fran Yoshioka, a well-known, respected color and trend forecast expert on the Autumn/Winter 2014 palette. Color forecasting is an art and a science and Fran travels to Europe to check out the trends in boutiques, street life and some major trade shows. The major trends she described to me were [...] Continue Reading

Carol Shaw-Sutton Art There are so many wonderful textile artists and natural inspiration around us daily, so much so that sometimes it's hard to settle and do our own work! When we first started the Botanical Colors Pinterest page, the idea was to savor what we loved most, give it a rest stop so we [...] Continue Reading

I’ve been thinking about how to get more natural color while using less water and energy. Here are some simple tips: 1.  Try some of the innovative dye techniques as practiced by India Flint and Kimberly Baxter Packwood. Both these artists create using low-water and low resource methods that yield surprising and very beautiful results. […]

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Boston artist Deena Schnitman creates works on paper using the age old technique of paste paper. She writes: “Paste paper dates back to the late sixteenth century when it was widely used by bookbinders in Europe for endpapers and bookcovers. The process has changed little and remains simple. A paste is cooked, colored with paint […]

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