Saxon Blue Archives - Botanical Colors

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

How to Get Pantone’s 2016 Color(s) Of The Year With Natural Dyes

For the first time Pantone introduced not one but TWO shades for 2016 Color of the Year: Rose Quartz and Serenity. Pantone describes the colors: Rose Quartz is a persuasive yet gentle tone that conveys compassion and a sense of composure. Serenity is weightless and airy, like the expanse of the blue sky above us, bringing feelings of respite and relaxation even in these turbulent times. Pantone uses words like “balance, calming, wellness, duality and compatible” to describe this shade. Luckily for natural dyers, Rose Quartz and Serenity are both within our reach. Rose Quartz is a soft pink with … Read more

Liquid Indigo and Saxon Blue

Many long time indigo dyers have been curious about the liquid indigo that I sell that works like an immersion dye. How can it possibly work that way? Traditional vatted indigo is not water soluble and it’s created through a complex set of steps and careful dipping, not in an immersion dye pot. Our liquid indigo is actually derived from an old recipe that was called Saxon Blue. Saxon Blue isn’t very easy to create at home unless you are really comfortable around battery acid and if it’s not made correctly it isn’t lightfast. Early attempts to create Saxon Blue … Read more