Botanical Inks

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Regenerative Natural Dyer/ Studio/ Educator/ Artist. Click here for links: https://linktr.ee/botanicalinks

21/08/2026

Sage · Salvia officinalis

A plant of wisdom, protection and purification - associated with healing, remembrance, resilience and the quiet wisdom of tending what we wish to preserve.

Sage has arrived at an extraordinarily intense eclipse portal - a time of endings and beginnings, shadow and transformation, death and rebirth.

It feels particularly resonant for me this month. I’m slowly emerging from a few weeks of deep grief following a significant family loss, while moving through a period of profound personal change and uncertainty.

I’ve been quieter than usual, tending to what needs tending and allowing myself to be with this transition rather than trying to understand where it is leading.
And Sage feels like the plant I want beside me now.

A plant for protection at the threshold. For remembrance and clearing. For tending what remains, releasing what has ended, and finding a way gently towards what comes next.

In the dye pot, Sage offers soft, earthy shades - muted greens, warm yellows and subtle grey-golds, carrying something of the silvery stillness of the plant itself.

🌿 Sage is our next plant for Colour Rituals.

Over this lunation, we’ll explore its natural colour, herbal and medicinal traditions, folklore, history and ritual - and the wisdom this ancient plant carries around protection, remembrance and renewal.

The free Sage Colour Ritual will be shared next Friday, 28 August. Join the free list before then to receive it.

For those wanting to journey deeper, the Colour Rituals membership offer more in depth teachings and studio notes, colour charts, video or audio pieces, and the full archive - a growing library of every plant we have explored, with deeper natural dye knowledge, recipes, plant histories, folklore, ritual and creative practices to return to throughout the year.

Whether you’d simply like to receive Sage next week or become part of the deeper ongoing journey, join Colour Rituals through the link in my bio. 🌿

19/08/2026

I made just eight jackets for this first little Indigo Workwear collection.

Each one was individually dyed by hand, building the colour slowly through repeated immersions in my natural organic indigo fructose vat, so that every piece emerged with its own particular shade, markings and character.

From the deepest indigo through original, faded and sky blues, to Jaded Blue and the hand-worked geometric Shibori - no two are quite alike, and none can ever be exactly repeated.

Made in Devon from 100% organic cotton cloth and organic cotton thread, without synthetic fibres or polyester, then naturally dyed by my hands here on Dartmoor.

Swipe through to meet the individual jackets:

Deep Blue Original Blue Mid Blue 1 — found its home Faded Blue Sky Blue Jaded Blue — found its home Shibori

And Mid Blue 2 — found its home before the collection was photographed.

Are you drawn to indigo at its deepest and darkest, or to the softer, faded blues?

Three have already found their homes, and the five remaining one-of-a-kind jackets are available through the link in my bio. 💙

09/08/2026

Every shade of blue begins here.

These jackets are dyed by hand in my organic indigo fructose vat, using natural indigo extracted from the leaves of the indigo plant.

Unlike synthetic dyes, the colour comes from a plant that has been grown, harvested and transformed into dye before being carefully prepared into a vat here at my studio.

Each jacket is immersed again and again, slowly building layers of colour until its own unique shade of blue begins to emerge.
No two are ever quite the same.

Grown and made, not synthesised.

The Indigo Workwear Collection is now available.

Which part of the process would you like to see more of?

indigodye madeindevon naturalfibres artisanmade oneofakind

07/08/2026

After months of refining the pattern, searching for the right cloth and slowly building each shade in a living indigo vat, this small collection is finally ready.

Each jacket is hand cut and sewn in Devon from 100% organic cotton cloth and stitched with organic cotton thread - no polyester fibres, no synthetic blends - then individually hand dyed with natural indigo here on Dartmoor.

Every piece is completely unique, with its own depth, markings and character.

Which shade would you choose?

The Indigo Workwear Collection is now live - link in bio.

02/08/2026

✨ TANSY • A Lammas Companion ✨

Every August, the Dartmoor hedgerows begin to glow with Tansy’s golden buttons.

She arrives just as summer begins its slow turn towards autumn—a plant long associated with harvest, remembrance, protection and transition.

I’ve just published the newest edition of Colour Rituals, where we spend time getting to know this remarkable plant through natural dyeing, folklore, herbal history and a gentle Lammas ritual.

Inside you’ll find my favourite Tansy dye recipe for luminous golden yellows, along with reflections from my own studio practice and an invitation to slow down and notice what this season is asking of us.

Colour Rituals is more than a collection of dye recipes. It’s a monthly journey into the stories, traditions and quiet wisdom of the plants that colour our cloth.

If you’d like to join us, this month’s edition is now live.
🌿 Link in bio.

With love,
Babs

20/07/2026

Late summer belongs to Tansy.

Those bright golden buttons that appear along roadsides, riverbanks and forgotten corners of the landscape, catching the sunlight as if they hold a little of the season within them.

For centuries, Tansy has been associated with protection, women’s traditions and household ritual.
Its unmistakable, pungent, almost sickly sweet fragrance has fascinated people for generations, while its flowers produce some of the richest golden yellows in the natural dye garden.

This month, I’m inviting you to do more than identify it.
Find a patch growing near you.
Sit beside it.
Notice where it chooses to grow.
Crush a flower gently between your fingers and experience its extraordinary scent.
Harvest only if it feels abundant and only what you truly need.
Let curiosity lead the way.

The next Colour Ritual explores Tansy through natural colour, folklore, sensory herbalism and creative practice - an invitation to build a deeper relationship with one remarkable plant over the course of a lunar cycle.

🌿 Join the Colour Ritual Membership via the link in my bio.

PlantAlchemy

03/07/2026

The Last Gathering at Southcombe ✨

There is now just one place remaining for our July Gathering on Dartmoor.

For two days & three nights we will gather around indigo vats, harvest colour from the garden and hedgerows, print with hand-carved woodblocks, make wild inks, bundle dye silk with flowers and spend time immersed in the slow rhythms of making together.

We will walk ancient moss-covered river valleys, share long lunches in the garden, watch cloth transform from green to blue, sit beneath dark skies around the fire and enjoy the simple pleasure of creating alongside kind, thoughtful and like-minded people.

The remaining place is in the Piggery Barn — a cosy, self-contained converted stone barn with its own roll-top bath and views across the land.

This will be my final retreat at before a new chapter begins and the last gathering I host in this beloved place for the foreseeable future.

If you’ve been quietly thinking about joining us, perhaps this is your invitation.

With love,
Babs xx

18/06/2026

The Piggery Barn ✦

Tucked away here on Dartmoor, this little self-contained barn has welcomed many wonderful guests over the past few years.

A place to wake slowly, make a cup of tea, wander through the garden and spend a few days immersed in colour, creativity and the landscape.

It is the final accommodation space remaining for our July Gathering.

Over the weekend we’ll be working with indigo, natural colour, cloth, plants and seasonal creative practices, whilst sharing meals, conversation and time together in this beautiful corner of Dartmoor.

If you’ve been quietly considering joining us, perhaps this is your invitation.

With love,
Babs ✦

14/06/2026

As this New Moon arrives, I find myself being drawn towards Lady’s Mantle (Alchemilla).

Over the coming lunation, I will be deepening my relationship with this remarkable plant through tinctures, teas, movement, observation, creative practice, colour exploration and daily attention.

Sometimes the most interesting plant relationships begin this way — not through certainty, but through following a thread of curiosity and seeing where it leads.

Over the next few weeks I’ll be gathering further notes, building on my colour studies, deepening my understanding of the history, folklore, chemistry and traditional uses of Lady’s Mantle, and paying attention to what emerges through the process.

At the Full Moon, I’ll share a new Colour Ritual inspired by this journey, including a free seasonal practice, reflections and creative invitation.

For those wishing to explore more deeply, the membership space will also include expanded colour studies, recipes, observations, science, folklore, alchemy and process notes.

If you’d like to follow along, you can join Colour Rituals via the link in my bio.

I’m curious to see where this plant leads.

11/06/2026

A few moments from our June Gathering on Dartmoor.

Three days spent working with indigo, plant colour, woodblock printing, handmade inks, flowers, cloth and the landscape around us.

One of the greatest gifts of these weekends is always the people who gather.

The conversations around the table, the shared meals, the laughter, the moments of quiet concentration and the collective delight when colour finally reveals itself.

Thank you to this wonderful group for such a beautiful weekend.

There is now just one place remaining for our July gathering, staying in the self-contained Piggery Barn.
See link in bio for full deets ✨

With love,
Babs

Address

133 Cumberland Road
Bristol
BS1 6UX

Website

http://www.botanicalinks.com/

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