4. Biofabricating Dyes and Materials#

lets say that this week is colorful, excited and happy :) This week is about natural and bacterial dying, we need to Understand the issues caused by current practices of the textile industry dyeing processes. Exploring material and colouring alternatives, ranging from natural dyes, using pigments and bacteria, to material biofabrication.Exploring local recipes of DIY materials.

Natural dyes#

At first I start reading more about biofabrication dyes, how it can be a sustainable solution.How we can build things from living things,using bacteria and natural things. In the world we have many natural dyes, and we have many local of dyes material.

lets start....

I first searching what natural dyes I have in my kitchen and what I need to buy.

Dyes I found:

Onion skin, turmeric (cumin), coffee (Ben), tea , paprica, alkanet (sumaq), hibiscus, madder,beet root .

fabric:#

I choose Cotton to dye with. preparing the fabric by cutting to pieces and boil it for an hour in water and sodium carbonate :

Beet root dyes#

First after cutting the beets into small pieces, soak the root sink into the water and boil for some time, to get the colored water. Then I added alkaline, vinegar and iron,the results are Different color grades.

With Mordants:#

from left to right: Iron - Alkaline - Vinegar

Recipe:#

Turmeric Dyes#

• I added cumin in the boiled water and left it a little to boil until the powder meilt in
• then soaked the cotton in the dye.
• I Used two mordants, Vinegar and Alkaline.
• added mordant it the

Indigo Dyes#

Blue wild Indigo, or blue false indigo, Naturally it can be found growing wild at the borders of woods, along streams or in open meadows. In jordan we can find a lot of this flower, in addition to blue color we can find also red.

Using Indigo for dying is to mush easy

Indigo with Turmeric Dyes#

I Also dye my hand :P

hibiscus Dyes#

Hibiscos with Mordants and Indigo.#

I added iron and vinegar the color did not change, but when I added Alkaline the color changed to give a gray color.

Gallery#

My library in natural dyes#

Crafted Biopastic#

Bio Resin

Starting with crafted bio plastic , after the research, I choose to try gelatine bioplastic (bio-resin).

Materials I need: gelatine, water, heater and glycerine.

I make a mold, so I used thingeverse to download a Pumpkin to cura software and used Ultimaker3, Pla material.

start preparing to do bio-resin, after mixing the components, I add an orange color by using turmeric dye.

This when when the mix start to dry, I made a test in a small mold, before casting the Pumpkin

Bio Plastic

I tried another recipe of bio plastic, I used gelatin 48g, glycerine 12g, water 240ml and added indego and red color.

• Recipe: • Warm up the water in the • Add plasticiser, the more glycerine the more flexible the material • Added gelatine • Mix until smooth • Added colors • Simmer for 10-15 minutes (86C max - time depends from the typology of heat applied) • Pour on your chosen surface • Dry it in a dry room

Vedio#

IMG_3070 from Al-zahra'a alomari on Vimeo.