Spirulina Ink¶
Spirulina experiment 1¶
Materials¶
- 1 gr of Spirulina Powder
- 200 ml Water
Process¶
- With a precision scale measure 1 gr of Spirulina powder
- Add 200 ml Water and stir
- Place a coffee or tea filter into a well-washed jar
- Filter slowly, adding lit amounts. Stir with a spoon if stopes filtering.
- Takes time depending on the filter, mine 2 h
- Use soon, because depending on the oxidation and temperature can get mold or change the colour
Spirulina impregnation¶
Test on Fibres¶
The experiment was made following the recipe from Spira Textile Dying. Although, the recipe recomend to use extrated blue ELECTRIC SKY™ from Spirulina algae. But is quiet expensive, so the idea was identify the behaviour with other brands Spirulina Powder (not extract colour).
Materials¶
- Spirulina power (4gr for jar of 250ml)
- Fabrics and yarns (vegetal and animal)
- Souring
- Tannin
- Mortant
- Tap boiling water for preparing fibres
- Pots
- Jars with leads (sterlized)
- Precision Scale (lab)
- Microwave (common)
- Latex gloves
- Dishes or platter - to put the materials to dry
Recyling the Dye Bath¶
Recycling the Dye Bath to Extract Pigments by Precipitation (lake pigment).
In this process we can recover the powder, use the dyi bath water to prepare ink and pigments.
The process is called precipitation, because the alumen cristal soluble (metals) in water will grab the pigments sand separe them from the water. This process transforms the solution Ph, so we need to add soda (sodium carbonate) to neutralize it again.
- Water bagth from washing the fibres with 250 ml desmineralized water
- Filter the bath with coffe filter to another jar
Materials¶
- 250 ml desmineralized water
- Coffee filter
- Funil
- Clean Jars
- Alum crystals
- Sodium carbonate
Process¶
- Filter with a funil
- 15 gr of Alum and water to dissolve
- Add to Dye and stir
- 7,5 gr of soda and water to dissolve
- Slowly add to Dye and wait for bubbles and possible explosion
- After the mix is fixed becomes a neutral solution (7 ph)
- Wait for a split, a pigment on bottom and a light water on top
- Let it dry and you have the pigment prepared for creating Inks or new Dye Bath.
Results¶
picture here
Spirulina experiment 2¶
Materials¶
- 5 gr of Spirulina Powder
- 200 ml DesWater
- 250 ml desmineralized water
- Coffee filter
- Funil
- Clean Jars
- 10 gr Alum crystals
- 5 gr Sodium carbonate
Process¶
Spirulina dye¶
- With a precision scale measure 5 gr of Spirulina powder
- Add 200 ml desmineralized water and stir
- Place a coffee or tea filter into a well-washed jar
- Filter slowly, adding lit amounts. Stir with a spoon if stopes filtering.
- Takes time depending on the filter, mine 2 h
Extract Pigments by Precipitation¶
- Filter with a funil
- Warm up the desmineralized water to 60ºC
- 15 gr of Alum and water to dissolve
- Add to Dye and stir
- 7,5 gr of soda and water to dissolve
- Slowly add to Dye and wait for bubbles and possible explosion
- After the mix is fixed becomes a neutral solution (7 ph)
- Wait for a split, a pigment on bottom and a light water on top
- Let it dry and you have the pigment prepared for creating Inks or new Dye Bath.
picture here