Celebrating 40 years of Kraftkolour

May 6, 2024

This year marks 40 years of Kraftkolour, and we are so excited and grateful to share this milestone with you, our fantastic customers.

We sat down with our founder, Bonny Francis, to learn more about how Kraftkolour got started, what she's up to now, and some of her favorite stories from the past 40 years.

Kraftkolour: Can you tell us how Kraftkolour got started?

Bonny: I went to art school and at the end the only thing I could do was teach and I didn't want to teach. I tried a few other things and then I actually worked with my dad because he worked in the industry, only he had like a big version of Kraftkolour we sold into carpet mills, Bonds was one of the customers. So, I worked in the lab as his textile colourist and he trained me as a lab technician with dyes, which gave me a really good basic practical understanding of most dyes, so I had that. 
Then we used to get a lot of people come into the factory with little Vegemite jars saying ‘Oh, I just need a little bit of dye to dye a jumper’ and I’d be sent up in the shelves to collect it. I was bored working there, I did a lot of knitting and in the end, I said “Well, what about we set up a small version of this and sell small quantities?”, because the only thing that was around at the time were products like Dylon, which weren’t efficient. I thought the thing to do is set it up and sell dye and give people decent instructions and simplify it, so it wasn't too technical and yeah that was basically what I set out to do. Because I had a basic understanding of products and techniques that people didn’t know about at the time, like they do now, I thought, I can make this accessible for people, so that’s how I started.  


Kraftkolour: Why did you feel it was important to set up the business?

Bonny: To give them (the customers) access to something that worked, it stayed on the fabric when you washed it and it didn't destroy the fabric or destroy the wool and had good fastness. Also to give them the skills to value add to what they were doing. There were a lot of people were selling their handmade stuff and I thought if you’re selling your stuff and you’re using bad dye that’s going to fade, then it devalues the product. That’s not good for someone who has handmade something.  

 

Kraftkolour: It might be hard to pick one but what’s your favourite memory from the 40-year history of Kraftkolour?

Bonny: Some of the people were just fantastic, unexpectedly fantastic. I’m not talking about the celebrities and the big names, you know, I'm talking about some of the people like Enid from the Handspinners and Weavers Guild (HWSG of Victoria), who was just adorable.

Then you get people like the artists Adam and Arthur, who do marquetry with our dyes, (you can watch a great video by the ABC on A&A's work here). I think thats so bizarre, I just think thats fantastic, it’s not even Textiles and they're doing something incredible, it's amazing. That was just completely accidental because for some reason they were at Ultimo Tafe or somewhere, and they were playing around with some of our dyes and found it worked.  
Those are some of the best things. It’s a long time to pick out a favourite. 

 

Bonny continued:  

Actually, there’s another one (memory) which is probably the first time I actually realised that there was a place for someone like me and Kraftkolour. Remember Vicky and Kenneth Rowell? He was a designer for the Vic Opera I think, and his wife, Vicky, was a costumer and they needed to make the costumes for when ‘Cats’ came to Australia. I could have the exact figure wrong, but part of the budget was for the costume materials, and they had to have multiple costumes for one character as they can’t wear the same costume every night. So, she came to me when I was in West Heidelberg (that was very early on), she came to me and said, this is what we are trying to do and the budget is $$$$ (lots of money!). So we saved them a heap of money.

All of the costumes were hand painted Lycra, and she came and asked what we’d suggest using. I said, ‘sure that’s this dye, which you can thicken and steam’, so she was a really smart girl, she took it all away and had a play with it and it saved them a fortune. Plus, she was very skilful, but I found that really amusing because I was like yeah, it’s not rocket science, if you know dye, then you knew it had to be dye because you couldn’t use textile ink because it doesn’t stretch. I always remember that because it was the first time I actually thought, hang on, this (Kraftkolour) is a really good resource, this is serious and the fact that someone like that could come to me and say ‘what's this’ and I knew straightaway, I thought this is information that everyone should have. 

Kraftkolour: What was your favourite part of running Kraftkolour?

Bonny: My favourite bit was product development and marketing. Making something and just seeing people really like it and thinking ‘Wow, that’s so fun’, also I always thought it was really fun having a product range and taking something out of the product and making it into something else and marketing it as something different for a different use, and 9 times out of 10, that really worked.

Kraftkolour: What do you think makes the Australian Textile community different from the rest of the world?

Bonny: I think it’s very small. I think it's very similar to other textile communities, I think you’d probably find overseas you're dealing with so many more people that there's probably a slightly different demographic. I think the demographic here is sort of a little bit older, but then you’re seeing a new trend with younger women doing stuff to be more self-sufficient and generate income at home, whereas before it was mainly a lot about people just doing it for pleasure. 

Above: Here is an early A6 sized instruction sheet for Indigo. The header and footer were designed by a friend of Kraftkolour, but Bonny would hand type all of the instruction sheets for the dyes. 


Kraftkolour:
How did the Landscapes come about and did you think they would be so popular?

Bonny: Okay so my thinking with those was… Someone actually asked me if we could do something like that and I thought ‘if I was going to do something like that, I want to do something that is really technically good’. Because my whole background was about quality dyes, that was my training, so I tackled it from that perspective. Instead of making just a straight product, I thought well if I'm going to do it, I'll do something that's loosely based on the colour spectrum. That would encourage people to mix colours and would give them a range of dyes that were really as good as you can get in terms of light fastness and washing fastness. Originally, I thought if people start with this, then they can move on to straight die - but it actually worked in the reverse, people stopped using straight dye.

One of our long-time customers and tutors, Leiko, said, wherever she travels she tells people worldwide to use the Landscapes, because she knows what she’s working with, and she knows they are consistent and reliable.Honestly, I didn’t think they’d do so well. We were just making a living, I never thought it (Kraftkolour) would even employ people, I was happy to do it on my own. I was surprised…really…

 

Above: The growth of the Landscape ranges. They are also coming up to their 40th birthday soon!

Kraftkolour: Through all the ups and downs, what was the biggest challenge in keeping the business going?

Bonny: Well, like any business, it has its ups and downs. There were times when you weren't making a lot of money and the other thing is that you have to be really on the ball - you can't just rest on your laurels. You've got to have a really good understanding of the market and you've got to be able to read the trends and tap into those, otherwise you're just static. I always felt like if I thought something was worth doing, I’d do it. We never actually threw a lot of money at new stuff so if it didn’t work, then it didn’t work but if it worked, you’d go with it. Running a business it’s really important to know what your market is and read the market. One thing I’ll say for myself is that I was really good at that, I had enough of a finger on the pulse to know what next, and I think it’s about having confidence in what you’re doing and to think that maybe you can develop a market and knowing what you do and do it well.  

Kraftkolour: What shifts in customer trends and interests did you see over the past 40 years?

Bonny: Oh, it changes all the time, but I think there are core things like the spinners, they've always been around, the textile artists, the painters they've always been around, the weavers. 

I think we're seeing a lot more wearable stuff and I think that's a reflection of younger women, as I said, trying to generate an income from home. I think particularly the last few years because they don't have a lot of disposable income, so they're much more self-sufficient in terms of their own wearables. So, I think we’re seeing a bit more of that.

One of the difficulties I think is to actually convince people that it’s (dyeing fabric) is like painting a house, if you don’t use the right products, and don’t do the right preparation, it’s not going to work. One of the things that pushes against that is people just want 'instant' all the time. The industry needs to appeal to younger women because that's the next generation of textile artists. They really are, so you’ve got to make it accessible and affordable. If it’s too expensive people aren’t going to do it. That’s the other thing, we’ve always tried to keep prices really good (as you saw with the old receipt prices haven't gone up too much - see below) and now we’re competing against other parts of the world, who have really low labour costs and a massive customer base, so it’s really hard to compete with them. 
That’s a frustration, I feel like people should always support an Australian company, if you don’t use it, you lose it. 

 

Above: A hand typed invoice for a Procion order from 1993. 

Kraftkolour: What impact do you think Kraftkolour had on the local textile industry?

Bonny:   Who knows? I would have hoped that we’ve given people more skills to create what they wanted, that’s all. It’s to enable people to do what they wanted to do. I mean that’s all I set out to do, I didn't set up to be on Facebook etc.

I think it's like any resource - if you want to do something and you've got access to a resource that helps to do it then you can follow through, but if the resource isn’t there then you can’t do it. Having the depth of knowledge that we've got allows people to have access to problem solving. You know, someone rings up and says they want to do something - we can say ‘well you can't do it like this, but you can do it like that’.

Above: Bonny at the Kraftkolour Stall at the Bendigo Sheep and Wool Show, in the 80s. 

Kraftkolour: Kraftkolour has been a very family-oriented business, everyone who has worked for you have felt cared for, supported and part of the family and I think the customers have felt that. Can you talk to us a bit about working as a family and how that developed the business? 

Bonny: When it got really busy, Graeme (Bonny’s husband) came and worked with me and he was a really integral part of its growth. He brought new skills into the business - he was into the inks and the manufacturing side of it. Before that I was just repacking stuff and when he came in, we expanded and that became his area of expertise. We worked really well together as a couple, and we also worked great in a work partnership. We were really supportive of each other ... we were a team. 


The way Kraftkolour worked from then on (from when Graeme joined Kraftkolour), provided such a great and enduring business, being family and customer oriented. It has its place in the scheme of things, and I think that’s why it’s lasted the way it has.  And the other thing we felt was, apart from the customers, our staff were our first priority, so we set out as employers to be really supportive of our staff. Through the fires in 2009, one of the best things about the business is how loyal the customers were. When we lost everything we owned, including the business, we were able to restart the business because of that loyal customer base. Back then, people gave us a lot of support in different ways to push us on and inspire us to keep doing it, and if we hadn’t had that support, we would probably just have not restarted.

 

Kraftkolour: Where do you imagine the business will go in the next 40 years?

Bonny: Continue doing the work that we've always been doing. I don't know because I'm not there anymore - but I think with any change of ownership, there is a slight change of direction, so it works for the person that owns it and the customer base. It’s a sort of partnership, isn't it? 

Kraftkolour: Some of our lovely customers may not know that you and Graeme retired about two years ago now, which is so well deserved. What mischief are you two up to now?

Bonny: Mischief? We’re still in the relaxation period and finishing the home renovation period. After that, we’re going to eat well, we’re going to travel, and I’ve got a studio now so I’m going to do my own work! I’m also going to start teaching, that will be really good fun!

 

Above: The first Kraftkolour shop.

 

The Kraftkolour team extend our warmest wishes and gratitude to Bonny and Graeme as they enjoy their retirement. They both have left a great legacy behind and we are honoured to have worked for and with them.