OUR STORY

V I O L E T T E

Inspired by nature, we harness the beauty of flora and preserve it’s essence within folds of silk. Here you’ll find an array of botanically dyed ribbons to adorn bouquets, floral arrangements, event stationery, table settings and gifts. Along with a curated selection of accessories and luxury gifts for weddings, events and special occasions.

H E I R L O O M

For brides, florists, stationers, stylists and those in search of truly one-of-a-kind, timeless pieces that celebrate love, beauty and nature - botanical heirlooms to be treasured for years to come.

B O T A N I C A L

Brimming with beautiful colours and prints, our collection is sustainably crafted with botanicals and blooms. All of our pieces are lovingly dyed in small batches, by hand, from our cottage studio on Tamborine Mountain in Queensland, Australia.

M A G I C A L

Our vision is to inspire magical moments as you celebrate life’s special occasions, by delivering beautiful, one-of-kind keepsakes with a focus on botanical beauty and timeless design.

CURIOSLY
BEAUTIFUL
KEEPSAKES


I N S P I R E D B Y N A T U R E

Violette grew from a dream of a slower, simpler, more intentional lifestyle that would allow me to connect with nature every day and build a career that reflects my passion for beautiful design.

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I have always been drawn to the intricate and delicate forms of plants and flowers and what started as a creative outlet during the early years of raising little ones has blossomed into a business centred around my ever-growing dye garden. Here I cherish slow days spent amongst the swaying blooms and dancing bees, gathering fresh petals to slip between folds of silk.

Violette has become a welcome way of life for me, happily intertwined with the daily rituals of family life. My kitchen table is more often than not a beautiful mess of silk ribbons, sparkling in the soft morning light as they wait patiently to be spooled. Pots simmer on the stove, air heavy with the earthy, herbal scent of freshly picked marigolds. My studio is filled with various botanical curiosities – from dried bunches of flowers, avocado pits and extracts in glass jars to brown paper envelopes bursting with seeds and pressed petals nestled between the pages of old books.

My library of botanical colour recipes is slowly growing as I experiment to come up with new shades and prints. When it comes to my process and composing my works, I’m quite intentional. I always have a vision in mind as I coax colour from the botanicals but sometimes they behave in unexpected ways. I have learnt to embrace the flaws – finding beauty in the subtle variations, organic markings and imperfections that occur as a result of the natural dye process – because that is where the beauty and magic lies. There is a sense of freedom in letting go of the pursuit of perfection because no two batches are ever exactly the same. Each one tells it’s own story, capturing and preserving a memory of seasons past.

– Em x

SUSTAIN-
ABILITY

S U S T A I N A B L E P H I L O S O P H Y

Our philosophy is to create products that embody both beauty and nature whilst striving to find a balance between sustainability, quality and staying true to our artistic vision. We embrace the slowness of our craft, creating each piece with care and intention. Our silks are dyed by hand, by us, in small batches, without the use of synthetic dyes. 

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It’s important to us that we use high quality natural ingredients. We grow many of our botanicals ourselves and hope to expand our dye garden over time to produce an abundance of natural colour. In addition to our home grown plants and flowers, our botanicals are foraged, purchased locally from farm stalls or sourced from specialist natural dye suppliers and herbalists. We choose to use mainly silk because of it’s natural affinity to botanical dyes and due to the exceptional quality and purity of colour it produces. 

QUALITY

PROCESS

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Each part of our process is carefully considered as we aim to tread lightly on the earth. Waste is reused or recycled wherever possible. Expelled plant matter is composted and used in our garden. Remnants of silk are used in packaging or to tie ribbon spools. We collect our own rainwater to use in the dye process which, once exhausted, is then used to water our dye garden. 

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Much thought has been put into creating packaging that is both beautiful and either re-usable, recyclable or compostable. We post our products using recyclable cardboard boxes and home-compostable mailers and labels. We make our tags and cards in-studio – embossed on our vintage hand press. We use premium quality paper and card stock that is 100% ECF virgin fibre and FSC certified, as well as being fully recyclable and biodegradable. Silk items come packaged in a calico bag, made from recycled cotton. Our decorative ribbon spools are hand crafted by us using Tasmanian Oak and Mother of Pearl – beautifully designed to be kept and treasured.

PACKAGING

BOTANICAL
PROCESS

B O T A N I C A L A L C H E M Y

The alchemy of natural dying is time consuming and complex but there is something magical about botanical colour that makes this process worth it. Many hours are invested experimenting and developing recipes, scouring and mordanting fibres, growing and harvesting flowers, extracting dyes and preserving dried florets to use when the last of the summer blooms are spent.

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    GROW | We grow many of our botanical ingredients in our very own dye garden. Raising seedlings and nurturing plants to provide us with a cache of natural colour throughout the seasons. Cosmos, delphiniums, geraniums, begonias, zinnias, dahlias, coreopsis, pincushion flowers and marigolds just to name a few.

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    GATHER & PRESERVE | Mornings are usually spent harvesting fresh blooms from the garden. They are pressed or hung to dry, then stored in jars, ready to be bundled in layers of silk. In addition to our home grown flowers, other botanical ingredients we use are foraged, bought locally from flower farm stalls or sourced from herbalists and natural dye suppliers.

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    MORDANT | Before any dying takes place, our silks are mordanted – a process which allows the botanical dyes to bond permanently with the fabric. The botanical ingredients we use to dye our silks all have varying colour fast properties. Part of the unique nature of botanical dying is that colours may subtly shift over time.

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    EXPERIMENT | Our palette is always evolving - ebbing and flowing with the seasons - a melody of natural hues extracted from flowers, leaves, roots, bark and berries. Developing colour recipes requires a lot of experimentation as botanical dyes do not act like synthetic dyes. Dying with plants is unpredictable. Although we may use the same colour recipes, no two batches are exactly the same.

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    EXTRACT COLOUR | To create our botanical palette, we extract colour by simmering plant matter, which is then strained and used to make a dye bath. Amazingly, a single plant can create many different hues depending on the amount of dye stuff used, temperature, time left to steep, and whether or not you reuse the same dye bath multiple times. Colour can also be modified and different shades can be achieved using pH and mordants to create a spectrum of beautiful hand crafted colour.

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    BUNDLE DYE | To create our flora print collection, we use a process called bundle dying. Flowers and leaves are scattered between layers of silk and then bundled up in little parcels to be steamed, infusing organic patterns and markings within the folds. In every batch a piece of nature is captured and preserved. Subtle variations and imperfections occur in the creation process, which in our opinion is what makes them so beautiful. Each piece is truly one-of-a-kind.