4. Biochromes¶
Research¶
This week was about something totally different; natural dyes! I took home Birch leaf and Hibiscus, to experiment with at home (and from the lecture I already got some new ideas what to populate my newly acquired garden with as well!)
Curious about both dye resources, I quickly did a search on the web to find out some
Fun facts on Hibiscus¶
Hibiscus across the globe: - The juice of the hibiscus petals and flowers was used as a dye by the Chinese and Indians to blacken eyebrows and hair. - Malays used the flowers in exorcism for epidemics and diseases - In Jamaica, hibiscus juice was used to polish shoes, hence the name, shoe flower. - Hibiscus flowers are worn by women in the Pacific islands to reflect their single status. - From Late Latin hibiscus, from Latin hibiscum, from Ancient Greek ἰβίσκος (ibískos, “marsh mallow”), probably ultimately from a Celtic language such as Gaulish.
- As national symbol: The hibiscus is a national symbol of Haiti,[38] and the national flower of nations including the Solomon Islands and Niue.[39] Hibiscus syriacus is the national flower of South Korea,[40] and Hibiscus rosa-sinensis is the national flower of Malaysia.Hibiscus brackenridgei is the state flower of Hawaii. The red hibiscus is the flower of the Hindu goddess Kali, and appears frequently in depictions of her in the art of Bengal, India, often with the goddess and the flower merging in form. The hibiscus is used as an offering to goddess Kali and Lord Ganesha in Hindu worship. In the Philippines, the gumamela (local name for hibiscus) is used by children as part of a bubble-making pastime. The flowers and leaves are crushed until the sticky juices come out. Hollow papaya stalks are then dipped into this and used as straws for blowing bubbles. Together with soap, hibiscus juices produce more bubbles. Also called "Tarukanga" in waray particularly in eastern samar province. The hibiscus flower is traditionally worn by Tahitian and Hawaiian girls. If the flower is worn behind the left ear, the woman is married or has a boyfriend. If the flower is worn on the right, she is single or openly available for a relationship.[citation needed] The yellow hibiscus is Hawaii's state flower.
Fun facts on Birch¶
- Birch is a pioneer species: often one of the first trees to colonise a treeless landscape and create an ecosystem for other trees
- in early Celtic mythology, the birch came to symbolise renewal and purification.
- The word birch is thought to have derived from the Sanskrit word bhurga meaning a ‘tree whose bark is used to write upon’
- The leaves are gathered in the spring and dried for use in infusions. It's also used for its curative effects on skin eruptions and wet eczema.
The many uses of both plants made me wonder if many natural dye resources might also have other purposes (medicinal or other funcations, or cultural symbolic ones, for example). How does one find out that hibiscus is a plant you can dye with? It reminded me the concept of cultural keystone species, described by Julia Watson in her book LO-TEK, design by radical indigenism:
"Cultural Keystone Species: an exceptioanlly salient species to a people, identified by its significance in their diet, materials, medicines, languages, traditions, histories and spiritual practices" - Watson, LO-TEK, p.23
As the Birch was my main dye, I started the process with this. And although we had neatly packaged prepared fabrics, I almost already messed up the different categories and almost (or temporarily) lost overview. When painted and modified however, it became much easier to distinguish the differences and back engineer which fabric was what. Again, an example of how doing helps with thinking (instead of the other way around)
Modifyers¶
First, I created my modifiers, of iron sulfate, PH3 and pH9. The first 2 were easy: iron sulfate was following the recipe, PH3 was almost directly achieved with normal white vinegar. The Ph9 proved harder: my sodium carbonate solution was way to strong, how much water I would have to add before getting to the right color. However, some lime juice concentrate did the trick! (I wasn't entirely sure if this was allowed, but my faraway past in high school chemistry told me that it would be ok..)
After mixing some of both the birch leaf and hibiscus in alchocol, I measured the rest of it for dyeing. This meant; 1/4 WOF for hibiscus, 200% for the birch leaf - so 7 grams of hibiscus for 30gr fabric, and 60 grams birch leaf for 30 gr fabric. And then: cooking cooking cooking. To not let it boil proved a biiit of a challenge, since I have an electrical stove which takes a while to warm up but then also takes a while to cool down again - some delay in temperature so to speak.
The only thing that I didn't get directly from the recipe was how much water you should add (or if that matters for that matter HA) and so in the end I think I ended up with just a bit too little dye bath maybe?
Painted fabric!¶
So now it was time to check my fabric and modify it. I also prepared some silk, and because I was curious to the difference, I mordanted half of it, and put the other one in unmordanted (is this a word?). FIRST MISTAKE though; in the end I didn't remember which silk was which and which one I then dyed with which color... and I don't think the results show me the difference either, but let's see.
So after rinsing all the fabric, I used my modyfiers on them.
second mistake: I THOUGHT I was using the PH9 modifyer, while in reality I was using the 10/11 one. So I learned never to keep things "just because they would come in handy" - or to at least distinguish them in a clear way.. At least I properly documented this time :)
This made my workspace look like a lovely semichaotic overview of dyed pieces (not to worry, I arranged everything recognizable to me; which means hopefully explainable to you)
Ink¶
Then I also did some tests with ink, both on alchohol base, and for the birch leaf also on water base (extracted from the dye bath). Although both alchohol based inks looked very vibrant in the pots, on paper almost nothing remained of the color. The water based ink did much better - although there I also had to compromise as the little amount of dye bath didn't let me cook it as thick as I wanted (as then the liquid started burning to the pan).
