RAW V EXTRACTS
botanical inks
Do you love working with natural dyes that you have grown or harvested yourself? Not so familiar with using dye extract powders? Or had more experience with the powders and feeling more drawn to fresh or whole raw plant dyes?
What are the benefits to each and set-backs if any?
I tend to use my range of in-house organic natural dye extracts for productions, as they are so simple and direct to work with for larger scale operations.
I’ve made all of them available to buy via the dye section in my online shop.
It is also possible for me to use locally grown or foraged dye plants and food waste for productions too. I often work with local organic cafes and stores to collect and recycle onion skins, coffee grinds and avocado rinds, for example, for local circular design projects.
The great thing about working with fresh plant dyes is that you get to connect to the plant, develop a relationship and reap the benefits of being in natural spaces for foraging or harvesting. We all know about the countlessly positive impacts of having more time outdoors...Theres also such satisfaction in turning your own land to colour production, and creating local fibreshed systems.. And perhaps you live in the city and see the good in recycling waste food from local cafes or your own kitchen scraps to get additional gifts of colour from your food.
Working with pre-extracted natural dye extract powders means that you get to skip the extraction process of gathering dye plants and processing them in water to receive the colour for dyeing. This can take a day or two or more in some cases so if you are working for clients, having stock of ready made extracts makes this a lot easier to manage, or even for your own practice, it allows for more spontaneity in creating as the colours are right there ready to use, for dyeing, painting or printmaking.
If you are based in the UK you may know and love our local dye colour spectrum of earthy and soft neutral colours from our heritage plants. The extract powders are often from sub-tropical regions in Asia or the Americas where brighter and more lustrous colours reside.
Keeping it local is a beautiful thing and working with and wearing a local camoflage of colours that sit well within our soft and gentle rolling hills and gentle colourscape.
Theres no right or wrong, and you know that if you want to source responsibly grown and processed dyes, we are a reliable resource for you with gots certification and ethical trade standards on all of our dye extracts, and many from local British growers using permaculture soil building techniques to nourish and improve the land.
What are your preferences when you source natural colours? Leave a comment below! :) x
NATURAL DYE PRODUCTIONS
I’m so happy to be back in Bristol and enjoying so much offering consultation calls, sampling services and natural dye production services, for a super interesting variety of clients from independent designers & start-ups to corporate brands, design houses and art agencies.
There are some really excitingly unusual project briefs this Summer which is keeping things super interesing and I’m getting the opportunity to be quite experiemental for some clients :)
I’m so grateful for all of these opportunities to develop new techniques & recipes, as well as practise some traditional processes.
My mind and soul feel suitably nourished and it just makes me so happy to see so many people from different spheres of creativity being turned on to natural dyeing and ecological textile production systems. This is such an exciting time!
Of course, I can’t speak in much detail about the private work I am doing now, until it is officially launched, so do watch this space..!
If you are interested to have fabric, yarn or garments dyed with natural dyes, do get in touch to discuss your ideas and projects - I’m always happy to take on new projects!
Email me: hello@botanicalinks.com
You can learn more about our requirements for the types of fibres we work with and other basic info here.
121 TUITION
I’ve been teaching private 121 classes in my studio again, which has been really lovely!
I love having the opportunity to hang out and get to know more natural dye community here in the UK and to share my space. I’ve really appreciated the interesting and beautiful souls who come through these bookings and our time together geeking out on plant dyes and generally inspiring each other!
These sessions can be a focus in on any area you are particularly interested in and want to explore.
My recent class was for a knitter/weaver enthusiast’s birthday present from her husband - she wanted to understand how to dye her own hanks of wool from start to finish using natural dye extracts. So we scoured, mordanted and dyed a few different colours of yarn with some of her Kent Shetland and my Bristol Shetland/Romney yarns and our in-house dye extracts
It was a fun day and we created a lush colour palette - I’m so excited to see what she creates with the dyed yarns!
If you are keen to develop your practise and could do with some guidance - do get in touch to book a session :)
Email me at hello@botanicalinks.com
Thanks for reading my journal post :) xx
I’d love to hear any thoughts you have in the comments below!
With much love, Babs :) xx