NATURAL DYES
Natural dye is color made from materials found in nature such as: plants, flowers, roots, bark, insects, and minerals used to dye textiles.
DIABLILLO
Cotton, Natural Dyes, Hand Sewn 2025
Diablillo is a collection of all the dyes I created during 2025 for research purposes, music videos, artist, and films that I worked on during that year. They come from a range of sources—food, insects, plants, and flowers—most of them found in Puerto Rico. These experiments throughout the year allowed me to develop a range of colors that come together in this 24” × 24” artwork.
In the coming years, my goal is to dive deeper into the research of natural dyes across the Caribbean and Latin America, comparing the range of colors available and how they contrast with one another. Ultimately, I aim to create a world of “Diablos” where all these colors can coexist in harmony.
My practice is rooted in an ongoing exploration of natural dyes throughout the Caribbean and Latin America. I am interested in how each landscape produces its own unique spectrum of color, shaped by local plants, insects, minerals, climate, and generations of textile knowledge. By comparing these regional color palettes, I seek to understand how place is embedded within cloth and how color can become a record of ecology, culture, and time.
Through this research, I am creating a living color archive that documents natural dyes, fibers, recipes, and their geographic origins. Each swatch serves as both a scientific record and a cultural document, preserving not only the process behind a color but also the environment and traditions from which it emerged. I envision this archive as a form of botanical and textile anthropology through color—a growing library that honors the intimate relationship between land, material, and memory.
