Natural Pigment Marbling with hellenius botanicals

Maya Ravi Richter and her mother, Anna Ravi are artists hand-dyeing with flowers, minerals and herbs under their beautiful brand, Hellenius Botanicals. Soaking up inspiration from their frequent trips to their home-away-from-home in Chennai, India, they have dyed some of the most beautiful silks and organic cottons you can imagine. They use the rainbow in flower form: roses, marigolds, hollyhocks, camellias, many of which are plucked from their dye garden, in Berkeley, California, others are rescued from discarded house flowers and sentimental bouquets, otherwise past their prime but refusing to be forgotten.

Ansuini & Co. teamed with Hellenius Botanicals to experiment making marbling paints created from natural pigments. Together, we audited an incredibly educational (and highly recommended) workshop by the brilliant Natalie Stopka, and immediately got to work with our muller and palette knife, grinding and mixing pigments such as madder, indigo and ochre working on paper, silks and cottons. Anna had cleverly dyed some beautiful silks with oyster mushrooms earlier that morning, giving the ribbons the faintest silvery bronze hue as a base.

The results were astounding- playing with the alchemy used by the original marblers at the onset of the craft’s invention. I’m completely besotted by the process and plan to explore this much deeper. Toward that end, stay tuned for more news on a very exciting HB x A & Co. product launch! xxjj