Natural Color

Sasha Duerr is an artist and designer who works with organic dyes and the creative reuse of materials. She is a professor at the California College of the Arts with a joint appointment in textiles and fine arts. Duerr's work has been featured in the New York Times and The Huffington Post.

As seen in Sunset Magazine, Sweet Paul, Well + Good, Pacific Horticulture, Sacramento Street, and many more!"She is at the forefront of the "slow fashion" movement."-Publishers Weekly"Sasha Duerr teaches us to look to nature for inspiration, using botanicals to create subtle, painterly hues. Her ecologically sound approach is both ancient and modern and thoroughly in tune with the times--all photographed to beautifully capture the subtlety of her work." -Julie Carlson, Remodelista editor in chief"A rich resource of indoor, plant-based DIYs"-Garden Collage"One of the prettiest books to land on our desks"-The Chalkboard"Discover the wonderful world of natural dye."-Atlas Magazine"Sasha Duerr's book is all about the kind of awareness we need - not only for making better choices, but also for tuning into the cycle and offerings of nature. As Duerr points out, nature is the ultimate instructor, an invaluable source of color, inspiration and innovation for all creative endeavors."-Santa Cruz Sentinel"Sasha makes a seemingly complicated process appear less daunting. Her beautifully illustrated book is filled with easy-to-follow recipes and ingredients that we all have on hand, in our gardens, or compost piles!"-Bea Johnson, author of Zero Waste Home"In Natural Color, Sasha shares her extraordinary gift for seeing color in nature. Through accessible projects and seasonal plant dying recipes, Sasha brings beautiful color to our lives and deepens our connection with nature." -Molly de Vries, owner of textile company, Ambatalia"Duerr is knowledgeable and thorough, and fiber artists with an interest in incorporating natural dyeing into their work will find the information they need to get started, as well as insight into the dyeing process."-Library Journal

• CONTENTS 1 LIVING COLOR: AN INTRODUCTION 11 THE PRACTICE OF PLANT DYEING 43 SPRING 52 CREATING COLOR THROUGH FOOD 79 SUMMER 90 THE ANCIENT PRIMARY COLORS: MADDER, WELD, AND INDIGO 122 THE SPECTRUM OF NATURAL COLOR 131 FALL 150 NATURAL COLOR FROM PERSIMMON 169 THE ART OF MEDICINAL DYEING 175 WINTER 202 WEEDING YOUR WARDROBE 209 WORKBOOK 211 MORDANTS AND MODIFIERS 235 TECHNIQUES