Sonya has been working with plant based dyes for the past five years and is slowly building a business, Riverbend Botanic, that she will run through Instagram.
Her business will include naturally made artist inks and dyed textiles.
“What I love about natural dyes is that they’re so easy to obtain and can be experimented with,” she said.
Dyes can be made from flowers, foliage, stems, bulbs, or roots, depending on the plant.
You can also use various fruit and vegetable scraps like carrot tops and avocado seeds, and countless other items from the natural world.
These act as natural dyes for fabrics like cotton, linen, wool and silk.
Plants used at their peak in spring, summer, autumn, and winter will create an array of gorgeous colours and textures only natural dyes can achieve.
Although COVID was difficult for most, during this time dye workshops via zoom reached a peak that was previously only accessible face to face and often in different countries.
Sonya is concentrating her early focus on fat quarter quilting bundles that will be available through her Instagram page - riverbendbotanic.
She has created a dye garden of her own experimenting with traditional European plants and colours - woad which creates blue, madder which creates red and weld which creates yellow.
Sonya is also keen to share her knowledge with others, and has conducted workshops to engage people sharing the same interest.
“I received a grant through Create New South Wales and South West Arts to run targeted workshops,” she said.
“These enabled me to share my knowledge with others interested in plant based dyeing.”
Sonya said her goal, other than doing what she loves, is to “inspire people to think differently in relation to sustainability”.
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