video Archives - Botanical Colors

Video From LIVE FEEDBACK FRIDAY: Fiber + Installation Artist Juliette Sallin

This week on FEEDBACK FRIDAY we had fiber and installation artist Juliette Sallin. Juliette talked about her most recent works and research about the relationship between plant, femininity and colors. Watch the video here. Follow Juliette’s work here and here. Juliette says her favorite dyes of ours are cochineal, safflower and logwood. ABOUT: Born in 1980 in Geneva, Switzerland, fiber and installation artist Juliette Sallin studied textile design at the University of Florence, new media at the HEAD Geneva and Kingston University (GB). Two-time recipient of the Swiss Ikea Foundation (2009 and 2013), Juliette has exhibited in Switzerland and Great … Read more

Video From LIVE FEEDBACK FRIDAY: Kassia St Clair

This week’s FEEDBACK FRIDAY was with journalist, color historian and author of The Secret Lives of Color, Kassia St Clair. The Secret Lives of Color tells the unusual stories of seventy-five fascinating shades, dyes, and hues. From blonde to ginger, the brown that changed the way battles were fought to the white that protected against the plague, Picasso’s blue period to the charcoal on the cave walls at Lascaux, acid yellow to kelly green, and from scarlet women to imperial purple, these surprising stories run like a bright thread throughout history. Kassia went into detail about five of those colors. … Read more

Video From LIVE FEEDBACK FRIDAY: Honeyfolk Clothing

This week’s FEEDBACK FRIDAY was with Heidi Iverson, Founder of Honeyfolk Clothing. Heidi was one of the original founders of Fibershed, an organization we love and respect so much. Watch the video recording here: Honeyfolk Clothing is entirely handcrafted by Heidi Iverson, in her studio surrounded by second-growth Redwoods in Western Sonoma County. She also devotes time to various forms of textile arts, primarily knitting and natural dyeing with plants and flowers she hand gathers or cultivates. While cutting pieces for the collection, all smaller off-cuts are set aside and re-used in various projects that require small pieces, like quilts … Read more

Video From LIVE FEEDBACK FRIDAY: Lani Estill

This week’s FEEDBACK FRIDAY was with fiber artist and rancher, Lani Estill. Lani Estill and her family own and operate Bare Ranch, a vertically integrated diversified livestock operation producing cattle, sheep, alfalfa and grass hay. The ranch is in Northeastern California and Northwest Nevada. They practice regenerative agriculture and with the help of partners like Fibershed and Carbon Cycle Institute are now operating under a Carbon Farm Plan. Lani is also the founder of Lani’s Lana ~ Fine Rambouillet Wool, a commercial wool business and small yarn line. Watch the video recording here: We talked about a lot of exciting … Read more

Video From LIVE FEEDBACK FRIDAY: Rust Dyeing With Samantha Verrone

This week, we’ve got video from our live FEEDBACK FRIDAY featuring rust dyeing with Samantha Verrone. Watch the video here: Read all the answers to the question from chat we didn’t get to here: FEEDBACK FRIDAY Samantha Verrone Samantha produces one of a kind home furnishings, clothing, accessories and tapestries. Inspired by antique Japanese Boro and Korean Pojagi and the various vintage and otherwise discarded textile remnants she finds in her travels, Samantha focuses on labor intensive rather than resource depleting production. Every piece is made by hand in her Bronx studio and is stocked in places like ABC Carpet … Read more

Video From Live FEEDBACK FRIDAY: Fashion Revolution + Katrina Rodabaugh

This week, we’ve got video from our live FEEDBACK FRIDAY featuring Fashion Revolution Co-Founder Orsola de Castro and mending/natural dyeing author and artist Katrina Rodabaugh. Katrina Rodabaugh gave inspiring insight into some easy mending techniques, ways we can rethink our clothing and how natural dyes have been a big part of her Make, Thrift, Mend project. This week fell right on Fashion Revolution Day, the anniversary of the Rana Plaza factory collapse, which killed 1138 people and injured many more on 24th April 2013. During this week, brands and producers are encouraged to respond with the hashtag #imadeyourclothes and to … Read more

Video From Live FEEDBACK FRIDAY: Natural Dye Inks With Biohue

This week, we’ve got video from our live FEEDBACK FRIDAY exploring natural dye inks with Judi Pettite of Biohue. Watch the recording here: This time around we got Judi Pettite, the founder of Biohue to answer questions and talk about how she forages, purchases and grows all the materials for her art as mindfully as possible. BioHue dye inks was founded in 2006 after Judi fell in love with colors she was getting from plants. Her inks and watercolors are made intentionally from the fewest ingredients possible and can be used in a number of applications including painting, drawing and home … Read more

Video From Live FEEDBACK FRIDAY: The 1-2-3 Indigo Vat Using Iron

This week, we’ve got video from our live FEEDBACK FRIDAY exploring a version of the famous 1-2-3 indigo vat using iron. Watch the recording here: This time around we explored a version of the famous 1-2-3 indigo vat using iron (ferrous sulfate) as our reducing agent. This is a useful vat for achieving darker shades, but comes with a few caveats. We reviewed how to make the vat using the 1-2-3 method (the proportions are a little different than the fructose vat), and what to do when your vat turns purple (really). We also reviewed safety and best practices. Botanical Colors’ … Read more

Video From Live FEEDBACK FRIDAY: Growing Dye Plants From Seed

VIDEO: A Dyeing Life

The New York Times writes about Han Shan, who “disillusioned with China’s urban dream” as a young man set off on a 15-year walk and rediscovered his family’s ethnic Miao traditions. So touching. To get your own blue hands and to discover the wonders of turning cloth a new hue of indigo, go here.