Purple Archives - Botanical Colors

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

Natural Purple

Nearly every summer in Seattle is so cold that climatologists officially classify it as the Year of the Green Tomato, which is the phenomenon where you have tons of tomatoes but none of them ripen. Ever. I didn’t think we could grow eggplants here. I was thrilled and amazed that kale and broccoli produced all summer and that cauliflower matured beautifully in the cool climate, but I wanted peppers, and tomatoes and I especially wanted eggplants. I’m used to those slender, violet-streaked, creamy Asian eggplants that are lovely in curries and stir-fry and grilled. I remember heaps of them – … Read more