tannin

Want to know how to make your very own signature black natural dye? Here’s a really good black recipe from Kathy to send you into tannin and iron experiments all day…or maybe, for the rest of your life. Black with gallo tannin, iron and logwood is a historical recipe from Europe and creates a warm […]

Ever wondered how to dye with marigold flowers? The humble marigold makes a beautiful and easy color that captures summer even when the weather is cold and gray. They brighten flower borders and are a companion plant in organic gardening. Marigold (Tagetes erecta) is native to Central America. The Aztecs used it as a flavoring […]

In a recent Live FEEDBACK FRIDAY featuring Mordanting & Scouring 101, Botanical Colors Founder Kathy Hattori took on all your questions. Here’s what you asked, and Kathy’s answers: Scouring Questions If I use untreated and unbleached fabric, is it a must to scour the fabric or is washing it enough? If you mean by “untreated” […]

This week on FEEDBACK FRIDAY: Too much dye on yarn and which natural dye extracts can be used without mordanting?

This week: Is it possible to use too much natural dye in a vat, foaming kamala and getting green with myrobalan

This week: Cochineal for more than textiles and how long does it keep, and what to do about a murky alum bath

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 just started natural dyeing and am wondering if you could suggest […]

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- […]