Eco Colour: Botanical Dyes for Beautiful Textiles

Dyeing with plants is a kind of botanical alchemy, a process that gives beautiful and sometimes surprising results. It is also a gentle and ecologically sustainable alternative to synthetic dyes, which are often harmful in themselves and in the processes used for their manufacture. In India Flint's Eco Colour, she explores this fascinating and infinitely variable world of plant color. Artistic dyer and colorist Flint describes only ecologically sustainable plant-dye methods using renewable resources, and attempts to take the path of doing the least possible harm to the dyer, the end user of the object, and the environment.

Various techniques for coloring cloth are discussed in Eco-Colour, including whole-dyed cloth, applied color and interesting effects from plant prints and layered dye techniques. Recipes include a number of entirely new processes developed by Flint, as well as guidelines for plant collection, directions for the distillation of non-toxic mordants and methodologies for applying plant dyes. Eco-Colour inspires both the novice home dyer and textile or design professionals seeking to extend their skills using Flint's successful methods.