Make Your Own Natural Watercolours!
- Words by Peppermint
Sustainable living advocate Rebecca Sullivan has made an art form of natural living, with books on everything from edible flowers to using herbs for health and wellbeing, as well as running a ‘Granny Skills’ program that brings communities of women together to preserve the culture, skills, knowledge and traditions of our elders. Here, she shares her very simple, very lovely method for creating natural dye that can be used as watercolour paint – let us know how you get on!
I firmly believe flowers are magical, and not just to look at – they give us flavour in cooking, marvellous smells in our homes and nourishing medicine when we’re ill. As if that wasn’t enough, their petals give us colour that lasts long after the flowers start to wilt – because instead of throwing ageing blooms into the compost, you can give them a second life by turning them into dye.
Natural dyeing is the process of drawing colour from natural sources such as plants, roots, berries, vegetables, bark, leaves and petals, and it’s taken place for thousands and thousands of years. There are lots of forms of dyeing using natural substances – but if you’re new to it all, the easiest place to start is solar dyeing. Simply by picking some of your favourite coloured flowers and harnessing the sun’s power, you can make dye in every colour of the rainbow! Then you can use the dye for everything from colouring your clothes to making non-toxic watercolour paints for your kids.
What you’ll need
Sunshine – choose a sunny spot in your home!
Jars with lids – ideally use ones leftover from your pantry.
Mordants – this fixes the colour. Here I’m using leftover white wine (if there is such a thing!)
Colour – this is where the flowers come in! Choose ones with colourful petals (white is a no-no!) – I love using irises, roses, marigolds, geraniums, gerberas and herb flowers, but you can basically use anything from your garden that releases liquid when squished.
Patience and a good shake!
Method
Have a wonderful time picking petals from your favourite plants. I’d suggest starting with a handful of each colour you want to create, always leaving enough behind for regeneration and wildlife. Shake any excess critters from the flowers before bringing them inside.
For every handful of flowers you’ll need a small jar (500ml is best) with a lid. Make sure it’s clean and dry.
Pick the petals from your flowers and place them into the jar, then top up with enough white wine to just cover the petals. Put the lid on and then pop it in your sunny spot.
For a couple of weeks, shake your jar and watch as the sun draws the colour from the petals. Leave for up to a month, then strain and use the liquid as a dye!
NOTE: This amount of dye is plenty for painting a few beautiful pictures, but it’s not enough to dye a substantial amount of clothing – think of it as more of a test run for you to see how it works and how much you can get from it.
WORDS AND PHOTOS: REBECCA SULLIVAN
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“My piece of advice for makers and designers? Run your own race… make sure your key decisions stay anchored in your brand’s core beliefs.”
- Bec Bligh
Quick show of hands: who’s opened a water bottle expecting a refreshing sip… and instead been greeted by the unmistakable whiff of uh-oh?
Because for something that follows us everywhere (desk, car, hikes, yoga…), the humble drink bottle is strangely prone to becoming a science experiment. Hard-to-clean corners and gaskets. Mystery smells. Bec Bligh and her husband Tim know it well. A six-month sailing trip along the Queensland coast left them with a lifetime of memories and one stubborn annoyance: mouldy water bottles they couldn’t properly clean.
So they did something about it.
Enter @EverVessel. Thoughtfully designed borosilicate glass and stainless steel bottles that keep things beautifully simple: durable materials, wide openings, easy-to-clean parts and none of the techy gimmicks that tend to age badly. Turns out simplicity, done well, is pretty powerful stuff. (Their many design awards agree!)
And lately they’ve added a little extra delight: the Artist Series, where creatives like Paola Castro, Ben Miners and Martin Thompson transform these everyday companions into tiny travelling artworks. There are more colabs in the works, too: hydration, but make it joyful! 🎨💧
We chatted with Bec about the sailing trip that started it all, the philosophy behind Ever Vessel, and why the most sustainable product is often just the one you keep using.
Tap the link in our bio to read the full conversation. 🚰
#EverVessel #ReusableWaterBottle
Pull up a chair… there’s room at this table!
For the first time, Feast for Freedom is bringing people together for a spectacular long-table dinner as part of the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival.
A Longer Table is exactly what it sounds like: one beautiful shared table inside the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (@Asrc1), piled with generous dishes inspired by this year’s hero cooks, Noha and Nige.
From 6 to 9pm on Wednesday, 25 March, this is what you can expect:
🍽 A three-course shared feast
🍷 Matched drinks
🎶 Live entertainment
✨ A room full of good humans
Your ticket doesn’t just buy you a delicious dinner. It supports the ASRC’s vital work and helps create a fairer future for people seeking asylum.
Seats are limited, and long tables have a way of filling up quickly – head to @MelbFoodAndWine’s website to book now: feastforfreedom.org.au/mfwf
#FeastForFreedom #MelbourneFoodAndWineFestival #LongTableDinner #FoodForChange
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This DIY project was featured in Issue 53 and now you can access it for the lovely low price of only $5.
Sun-safe chic is always in style. ☀️
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For our fabrics we chose two from our lovely sewing partner @Karmme_Apparel – the bold Rottnest Stripes in a lightweight, soft-drape cotton, and the quality linen in the handpainted Mexico Collection.
Get making the Myrtle – the only question is, can you stop at just one?
Link in bio 🪡
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It’s time to Feast!
Some recipes travel a long way before they land on your table to delight your taste buds. This year’s Feast for Freedom invites us to gather our friends, cook something delectable and raise funds for the incredible work of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (@Asrc1) while we’re at it.
The 2026 Feast features recipes shared by two remarkable cooks: Noha, who brought the flavours of Palestine with her when she arrived in Australia, and Nige, a Sri-Lankan Tamil cook whose journey with food began in the most unexpected of places.
You can host your own Feast up until 30 April – simply register online and get planning! Host a dinner, organise a workplace lunch, or gather your community… However you do it, the idea is simple: cook, connect and celebrate the cultures and stories that shape Australia.
Want to find out more? Head to the link in bio to meet Noha and Nige, learn more about their stories, and discover a delicious recipe to try.
#FeastForFreedom #PeppermintMagazine #FoodForGood #ASRC
