Saxon Blue Archives - Botanical Colors

Mordant Monday: In the clutches of Cutch

This week’s Mordant Monday explores another well known and important tannin: Cutch. Cutch is a wood dye from Senegalia catechu (formerly Acacia catechu), an acacia species that grows in South and Southeast Asia. The dye is both a colorant, and a traditional medicine. It is also the by-product from the manufacture of “katha”, which is a crystalline substance that is an ingredient in paan or betel nut leaf, which is an Indian mouth freshener and digestive. We’ve never tried paan, but we love cutch for its versatility and deep colors. It’s a sweet-smelling dye and the color yield ranges from … Read more

You Asked, Kathy Answered: Do I Mordant With Saxon Blue?

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: I am writing you an email because I have a question about the Saxon blue liquid. I am about to use it to dye wool fiber, and I am asking if I need to mordant my wool fiber. If I don’t need to that would be nice but if I have … Read more

You Asked, Kathy Answered: Indigo To Get Green + A Ruined Vat

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: I am curious how to achieve a light shade of blue green with natural dyes and am assuming it would be dyed first with weld and then over-dyed with a few dips of indigo? Is there a natural dye that will do the same in one step? KATHY ANSWERED: We like to … Read more

FEEDBACK FRIDAY: This Week in Natural Dye Questions

This week: Making your own color recipes, the difference between tannin and mordant and how we get “good” color

FEEDBACK FRIDAY: This Week in Natural Dye Questions

This week: Saxon Blue battles Indigo for light and washfastness and tips for getting olive green.

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 have been printing with dye extracts on silk. My question is- once the fabric is mordanted, dunged, dyed, and steamed, can I over-dye the fabric without going through the mordant process again? You don’t need to remordant for additional overdyeing. If it’s been a long time between the initial dyeing and overdyeing, (like several years), then … Read more

FEEDBACK FRIDAY: This Week in Natural Dye Questions

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: Do you have any tips on getting a crimson red on cotton from cochineal? Been trying so many different ways and can’t get the concentration to stay! The majority of the historical recipes for very deep and bright red on cotton use madder, not cochineal. Your best bet if you want the deepest shade on cotton is … Read more