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IV. BIOCHROMES

About Biochromes

This week we are exploring Biochromes which are substances produced by living organisms that have a color resulting from selective color absorption. Biological pigments or biochromes include plant pigments, flower pigments and animal pigments. We´ll be experimenting with plants, flowers, fruits and vegetables as well as a bacteria strain called Janthinobacterium Lividum.

Let´s continue by establishing the two categories of fibers we´ll be working with and how to prep them for mordanting/dyeing. First of all, as you see in the chart below, there’s Natural fibres and Manmade ones. We will only be working with natural fibres because natural dyes or inks are best absorbed by natural ones. This also applies for the bacteria.

Image from Texpedia

*Texpedia

SCOURING RATIO - Cleaning the fibres

Animal Fibres: 250 gr WOF (weight of dry fibre) 3L of water + 1 tsp Soda Ash + 1 tsp neutral ph baby soap. Vegetable Fibres: 450 gr WOF (weight of dry fibre) 5L of water + 2 tsps Soda Ash.

MORDANTING RATIO - Prepping the fibres for pigment absorption

Animal Fibres: 100 gr WOF (weight of dry fibre) 10-20%Alum of WOF + 8%Tartaric Acid of WOF. Vegetable Fibres: 100 gr WOF (weight of dry fibre) 10-15%Alum of WOF.

NOTE: These are the measurements for the amount of fabric I used, you must calculate de percentages based on the weight of your fabric (dry).

LOGWOOD or Corymbia Opaca

* Images by Stalph & Aurora Silk

Experimenting with Modifiers & Logwood

LOGWOOD + Copper

weekly assignment

Check out the weekly assignment here or login to your NuEval progress and evaluation page.

about your images..delete the tip!!

  1. Remember to credit/reference all your images to their authors. Open source helps us create change faster together, but we all deserve recognition for what we make, design, think, develop.

  2. remember to resize and optimize all your images. You will run out of space and the more data, the more servers, the more cooling systems and energy wasted :) make a choice at every image :)

This image is optimised in size with resolution 72 and passed through tinypng for final optimisation. Remove tips when you don't need them anymore!

get inspired!

Check out and research alumni pages to betetr understand how to document and get inspired

Add your fav alumni's pages as references

"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum."

  • Two images side-by-side

describe what you see in this image describe what you see in this image


  • Image reference

centered image with credits/reference
  • Download reference

Links to reference files, PDF, booklets,

about your images..

  1. Remember to credit/reference all your images to their authors. Open source helps us create change faster together, but we all deserve recognition for what we make, design, think, develop.

  2. remember to resize and optimize all your images. You will run out of space and the more data, the more servers, the more cooling systems and energy wasted :) make a choice at every image :) This image is optimised in size with resolution 72 and passed through tinypng for final optimisation.

Tools

Process and workflow

describe what you see in this image

My first step was too..... Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

Ingredients & Recipes

Prepare this recipe 1 by collecting the ingredients necessary, to be found in the list below:

ingredients
  • xxx gr madder root
  • xxx gr alum
  • xxx gr fabric
  • xxx ml xxx
  • xxx gr xxx

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum."

Blue sky

recipe mallow dye on protein and cellulose fibers
  • measure
  • add
  • simmer
  • mix
  • remove
  • strain
  • repeat

Documenting experiments

example from the documentation of Petra Garaiová FabTextiles Barcelona 2021-22

TEST 01 - SILK
Material name Fabric composition Breathability Moisture-wicking abilities Heat retention abilities Stretchability Washing temperatures
Silk Animal fibers - silkworm insect Highly breathable High Low Low Cool or warm
RESULTS

Two ways of showcasing and comparing results with images below

On the left an image of a sample made by xxx with xxx. The dye is more xxx. On the right, an image of a sample made by xxx with xxx and xxx. Here the dye is more xxx.


RESULTS

Recycling the dye into pigments

Ingredients & Recipes

Prepare this recipe 1 by collecting the ingredients necessary, to be found in the list below:

ingredients
  • xxx gr madder root
  • xxx gr alum
  • xxx gr fabric
  • xxx ml xxx
  • xxx gr xxx

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum."

pink pigment

pigment from left-over dye bath
  • measure
  • add
  • simmer
  • mix
  • remove
  • strain
  • repeat

RESULTS

---

Recipes

  1. recipe: banana indigo ↩↩

  2. recipe: mallow sky blue ↩

  3. recipe: bacterial dreams ↩

Last update: 2022-10-23