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 decor.
Here’s what we talked about today:
1. Would your liquid inks be good for painting on fabric/cloth(wool, cotton, linen, silk)? Do they need to be set?
2. Can this product be used as a natural color finish for wood? I’ve dipped a number of wood projects in the past, but some are either too large or awkward for dipping. A paintable indigo like this might provide a great alternative.
3. How lightfast are the Biohue inks and your other colorants? Have tests been done on any of them with sun exposure?
4. If I purchased your dye inks could they be used with an additive to thicken them for printing?
5. Are these inks for block printing on fabric or are they just for paper?
6. Does this ink also work well on fabric stamps? how is it fixed to the fabric? Is it necessary to mordant the fabric before printing?
7. Could one thicken with guar gum to screen print. How concentrated are they?
8. Is there an expiration date for these inks?
9. I purchased indigo dye ink and it just arrived. I would like to paint on cotton already dyed in an indigo vat but how does it actually work, as an additional dye or is it only on the surface of the fabric? Do I need thickeners?
10. Do dyes that are thickened with print paste thickener need to cure for a specific amount of time? I’m finding that the printed image washes right off of my pre-mordanted fabrics, almost as if they are just sitting on top of the fabric. The only variable that is new is the print paste thickener. Any ideas why this may be happening?
What is Feedback Friday?
If you are not familiar with FEEDBACK FRIDAY, every week, we are emailed with questions from our natural dye community. Weekly, all of your burning questions are answered by natural dyer in chief, Kathy Hattori, Founder of Botanical Colors. Today for live Feedback Friday, both Kathy and Amy DuFault, Botanical Colors’ Sustainability and Social Media Director were on hand to moderate and answer questions via Zoom.
Here’s some resources from today’s Zoom:
INKS
All Biohue Inks on Botanical Colors
BOOKS
Natural Colorants for Dyeing and Lake Pigments
Make Ink: A Forager’s Guide to Natural Inkmaking
The Art and Science of Natural Dyes: Principles, Experiments, and Results
PAPER RESOURCES
Strathmore
ARCHES® Aquarelle / ARCHES® Watercolour
TOOLS
Nibs
Join us April 24th, 9am Pacific/12 noon Eastern for a special live Zoom FEEDBACK FRIDAY. This week we feature Fashion Revolution Co-Founder Orsola de Castro and mending/natural dyeing author and artist Katrina Rodabaugh.
Register in advance for this meeting here.
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. Please make sure ahead of time you received the link for accessing Zoom. Sometimes it goes into your spam box so make sure you check! Every week lots of people miss out because they wait until last minute! The email for sign up should come to you as soon as you sign up for FEEDBACK FRIDAY. If it doesn’t you did something wrong.
We have a 100 person max so please only RSVP if you think you can really make it.