4. Biochromes¶

This week I was looking for different textiles which can be dyed using natural components and also for those natural dyes, which I used for the process. This Photograph I found at istockphoto

Research¶

I was how many flowers are needed to produce one Liter of the dye?

What kind of dyes would I like to use and which kann I find?

Which textiles should I use?

How many peaces of Textile do I need?

Those peaces I did not used:

And what else is needed?

For weight and temperaturecontrol I needed a very precise scale and water resistant temperature measurement device.

As I measured the pH value of the water we used, I found out that it was prety neutral, which means about 7 at pH-scale.

For the crafting of mordants, I found folowing materials

Copperfoil

1. Preparation¶

The first step in the Process of dyeing is the preparation of the textiles by washing the in handwarm water with some soap (wool and silk) or boiling them for one hour in water with baking powder (Sodium carbonicum).

2. Without and with Mordant¶

And four other vegetable textiles were boiled for 45 minutes in the copper liqeur mordant. For wool and silk I had to cool down the mordant to 45°C.

3. Dyeing¶

After boiling, one part of the dye had to be cooled down for the protein textiles.

In the following you can see some experiments, which are not puposed and were very suprising. Dyeing with tumeric I found an interessting colur in the pace of linen above the dye level. The same did not happened with peace of silk. Both peaces were not treated with mordants befor dyeing.

4. Modifying¶

As a modifiere I have coosen those three:

Iron Liqeur Sodium Carbonicum Salt

Table of the Colours¶

Safety notes¶

``` When you work with mordants and other additives which are not used for cooking, you should use the rubber glowes and eventuelly the dust mask while measuring and mixing. While boiling the mordant and modifiers you should not work in the same room or keep the distance to the boiling pot while keeping the window wide opened or turn the exhoust air ventilation on.