“Like nature, each piece is unique” - Rivarossa Botanicals

 Silk pillow cases tinted by real gumtree leaves. Linen tote bags exploding with the colour of garden flowers. These are just some of our favourite things that Carly Catalano creates as a part of her business, Rivarossa Botanicals.
 
Read all about Rivarossa Botanicals and treat yourself to some pieces of your own using the discount code found below.

Where It All Began
 
Following a life-long love for crafting and experimenting with different art forms, Carly Catalano stumbled across the art of botanical dyeing, instantly falling in love with it. Carly now uses her skills to produce an array of products using natural dyes and locally-sourced, sustainable materials.
 
The road leading to Rivarossa Botanicals has been nothing short of an adventure.
 
In the winter of 2020, Carly and her family endured one of Italy’s harshest covid lockdowns. Thanks to the generosity of Carly’s brother-in-law’s family, Carly and family were lucky enough to ride-out the lockdown together in a beautiful, aged villa tucked away in the small village of Rivarossa, in Northern Italy.
 
Prior to their lockdown experience in Italy, Carly, who is originally from Canada, had been living overseas for nine years, spending the last five years of that stint in the UK with her husband and daughter. Carly’s husband and his family are all from Perth, so they quickly aimed to return to Australia when the covid waves started spreading.
 
It was during their months isolating in Rivarossa, while waiting for flights back to Australia, that Carly used her time to develop her skills in creating with natural dye and experimenting using local fabrics and materials.

Finding Inspiration in Local Australian Plants
 
Once Carly and her family arrived back in Australia, they spent a lot of time at her husband’s family farm, near Gingin. It was there that Carly really honed her skills in natural dyeing using fallen leaves and flowers from the local area. With the insightful knowledge from her mother-in-law, and support from her little helper, her daughter Flo, Carly became immersed in this art form and has since continued learning new methods and techniques.

Using locally grown plants and homegrown florals, Carly works her magic to produce beautifully patterned, one-of-a-kind garments that are coloured and patterned with the dyes from these natural sources.
 
Carly explains that the process of using natural techniques to dye with can be long – each piece takes around 3-4 days to complete. To begin with, she uses different mordants, tannins, and modifiers to prepare the fabric and ensure it will hold colour. Then she goes foraging, searching through fallen leaves, and collecting flowers to use from her “very own dye garden".