Why Natural Dyes?

Natural dyes are colors that come from our world in the form of leaves, roots, flowers, insects, bark, mushrooms, and more. Examples include indigo plants, which have been prized for centuries for the blue dye produced by their leaves, and the weld plant, which can dye cloth a clear, bright yellow. The dyes penetrate each fiber, fixing chemically to the cloth and leaving its drape and sheen intact.

Natural dyes are often more complex, more time intensive, more unpredictable, and more expensive than their synthetic counterparts. So why have we chosen them as the material at the heart of our work?

The answers all lead back to connection—to our living world, to a centuries-old tradition of craft, and to the values at the heart of our studio.

A rainbow of shades achieved with pomegranate dye

Color from indigo, madder, cochineal, buckthorn, and weld

Here at Homebody, we choose natural dyes because they transform our work into a partnership between us and our earth. Each textile is the result of our specific printing and dyeing processes as well as the growing conditions of the dyes themselves, the ways those dyes were harvested and stored, the characteristics of our water, and more. They help us keep our eyes wide and our minds open, and they remind us of the awe-inspiring complexity and beauty that can go unseen around us. The natural dye color palette is rich and warm, reflected in bright yellow petals, soft green lichens, the layered reds and browns of sandstone—colors of the earth and from the earth.

Using natural dyes links us to the historical wisdom and craft traditions of centuries of artists. Until the second half of the 19th century, all dyed cloth was made using natural colors. That means that the saturated indigo kimonos and intricate wool rugs and royal purple robes that we can find in art museums and history books were all colored with natural dyes. Today, these techniques have been supplanted almost entirely by synthetic dyes, and knowledge that was once widespread is now maintained by a small community of artists and researchers around the world. We are proud to be among them, to be keeping these traditions alive and expanding them through our unique and modern voices.

We use natural dyes because they align with our vision for Homebody: a studio that works small and slow and with intention. It takes time and patience to use natural dyes. It takes care and knowledge, a spirit of experimentation and an element of trust. Through our process, we want to provide you a beautiful, joyful alternative to so many of the harmful and polluting products available today. We want to make pieces that live lightly in our world but advocate strongly for the work of the hand. We hope wearing and using our textiles feels like an act of appreciation, gratitude, and celebration—both for the wonders of our earth and for the creative spirit in all of us.