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4. BioChromes

Learning outcomes

  • Research skills: the participant has acquired knowledge through references and concept development
  • Technical skills: Master techniques mordanting, dyeing (botanical or bacterial), pigments
  • Process skills: Anyone can go through the workflow and recipes, understand them and reproduce it
  • Final outcome: the participant understands various stages of color as: dye, inks and pigment
  • Originality: Has the research been thought through and elaborated?

Student checklist

  • Include some inspiration: research on artists or projects that on natural/bacterial dyeing, local ingedients and resources
  • Produce at least 1 natural dye with modifiers on fabric
  • Produce 1 ink OR 1 pigment
  • Document your recipes, the ingredients and process and if there have been changes, document your unexpected discoveries
  • Submit some of your swatches to the analog material library of your lab (20cm x 20cm approx)

Research

Anthocyanin

I became interested in dying that changes with pH, so researched Anthocyanin. According to the info,

  • Anthocyanins are pigment components contained in the leaves, roots, stems, fruits, etc. of plants (higher plants). As a substance, it is a type of flavonoid.
  • Substances produced by plants to adapt to their environment, not for growth or seeding.
  • The red color of autumn leaves comes from anthocyanins produced by plants to protect themselves from environmental changes such as sunlight and temperature.
  • Anthocyanins protect other tissues by absorbing ultraviolet rays that can have harmful effects on genes.

The figure below is from the article. (a) is Basic skeleton. Many types are created depending on what binds to R1 and R2. Major Anthosyanins in plants, with respective maximum wavelength are listed. (b) is Spectral absorbance ranges for the most-abundant anthocyanins and respective colour at different pH values.



Japanese love hydrangeas. There are many temples famous for hydrangeas such as Meigetsuin at Kamakura. Many people plant it at home. There are mainly blue and pink colors, but this is also related to anthocyanin, and the color seems to change depending on the pH of the soil.

Mordant from garbage

I found an experiment by a high school student, "make mordant from trash". She was experimenting with dissolving the plastic surface of snack food aluminum packaging with an organic solvent to extract the aluminum inside.　Although there were some issues with the solvent, it was an interesting approach.　I bought alum, but maybe I can substitute something familiar. aluminum foil, aluminum cans, etc.

Murakumo shibori

”Murakumo” means clustered clouds. Murakumo shibori is one of the Shibori technique. By wrapping the cloth around a stick and shrinking it, you can dye it in a zebra pattern.　The below is simple Murakumo Shibori Tool. You can adjust the size by adjusting the length of the stick, and it seems easy to make a simple tool using laser cutter, milling machine. I thought it was interesting that we could put a pattern on the entire cloth. 　　

References & Inspiration

IIn order to make the assignments, I looked at the Zero Waste Journey chart explained in class many times and thought about it.

　　　　

My plan is:

  • Try Onion, which was recommended in class.
  • Try PH change of Anthocyanin. Grapes,　Eggplant etc.
  • Organize Swatches like a book
  • Try some Shibori technich such asMurakumo-shibori

Process and workflow

Natural Dye

I reffered to the info of Soda ash, instructer's doc Rico-san, Jun-san, and Japanese article. It seems that scouring with Soy Milk is a good way to add protein to vegetable fiber, so I tried it.

Fabric

Plant-based

  • Cotton 100% / Linen 100%　　　　　

Animal-based

  • Silk 100% / 　Wool 100% 　　　

Preparation:
(1) Cut clothes into 50mm x 50mm
(2) Measure the weight
(3) Wash the cotton and linen fabric with water

Scouring

  • None:

    • To compare the result, I also prepared not scored fabrics

  • Soda Ash solution:

    • Weigh 10% od Weigh of Fabric.
    • For 6g fabric, add 0.6g of soda ash to 200ml warm water, and stir until dissolved. Soak cotton and linen materials for 20min. Don't wash afterwards　　　　　 　　　　　

  • Soy Milk solution:

    • Soy Milk : water = 1:1
    • Add 200ml soy milk into 200ml water. Soak cotton and linen for 20min. Dry flat without washing.　　　　　　　　　

  • Soy Milk & Soda Ash: 　

    • Soak cotton and linen in soy milk solution for 20 min, then soak them in the soda ash solutionat for 20 min. Don't wash afterwards,

Mordant

A mordant is a material used to treat fibers in order to dye the fabric with plant colors. By soaking the cloth in an aqueous solution of aluminum, the color develops and fixes more easily.

  • None:
    • For comparison
  • Alum solution:
    • Weigh the alum 10% of Fabric. Dissolve it in hot water. For example, Fabric=50g, Alum=5g, Hot water= 1l.

  • Iron solution:
    • Add enough water to soak the kitchen steel wool and 2 spoons of vinegar, and leave it for half a day to create a rust solution. There are differences depending on the material of the steel wool. If there is a lot of stainless in it, there will be less rust.

Dye Stuff

Onion

　　　　 Recipe:　　　　　

  • Fabric: Cotton, Linen, Silk, Wool 30g
  • Onion skin 20g　　　　
  • Water 500ml　　　
  • Scoring: None / Soy Milk / Soda Ash Weigh / Soy Milk + Soda Ash　　　　　　
  • Mordant: None / Alum solution/ Iron solution　　　　　　　　　
  • Tool: Pots, cups, mesh bags, spoon, chopsticks, globes, mask, scale, Heater 　　　　　　
Dyeing　process
  1. Collect onion skin.
  2. Measure the weight. It was 20.6g.
  3. Place the skin in a mesh bag, add water 500ml and heat. Once it boils, reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes.
  4. Squeeze the onion skins using a mesh bag to extract the dye liquid. Divide into cups depending on the combination of dyeing experiments.
  5. Soak clothes for 20min. 　　　　　　
Swatches







Impression:

  • The effect of scouring looks Soda Ash > Soy Milk > None. For dark dying, soda ash is good solution. But it depends on the target colar. Even if you use soy milk or no scoring, you can dye it in delicate colors. And Soy milk is easy to handle.
  • The linen dyed better than I expected. Maybe it's because the fabric is rough.
  • The yellow color by Alum is vivid and very beautiful. The changes made by Mordant are interesting.

Grape

Recipe:　　　　　

  • Fabric: Cotton, Linen, Silk, Wool
  • Grape skin 140g　　　　
  • Water 500ml　　　
  • Scoring: None / Soy Milk / Soda Ash 　 The proportion is the same as onion.　　　　
  • Mordant: None / Alum solution/ Iron solution. The proportion is the same as onion.
  • PH: None / Vinegar / Baking soda　 　　
    • Vinegar solution: Citric acid 1g + water 100cc
    • Baking Soda solution: Baking soda 5g + water 100cc
  • Tool: Pots, cups, mesh bags, spoon, chopsticks, globes, mask, scale, Heater 　　　
Dyeing process
  1. Collect and freeze grape skin. Freeze is not mandatory, but it seems that the cells are broken and the pigment comes out more.
  2. Measure the weight. It was 140g
  3. Place the skin in a mesh bag, add water 500ml. Anthocyanins seem to be sensitive to heat, so tried extracting them without heating them.
  4. Leave it one night.
  5. Divide into cups depending on the scoring, None/Soy Milk/Soda Ash.
  6. Put fabric into cup and leave tnem for 4 hour
  7. Divide into cups depending on the experiments combination. Add Mordants into the cups that requires it and leave 3min.
  8. Add Vinegar/Baking Soda into the cups that requires it and leave 3min.
  9. Wash the fabric with water, wring it out, and dry it

Scoring None / Soy Milk / Soda Ash

Swatches


















PH measumrent

I remembered my PH sensor (older version) that read PH using Arduino. PH data is read as analogue data and send to PC via serial. For example, the first part of the following graph was PH data of the Baking soda solution. After that put the sensor into standard storage solution. The data was distorted at the moment of input, but after that it became constant.

I measured PH of the grape dying liquid as follows. Grape liquid with Soda Ash was highly alkaline. So, the anthocyanin color changed to blue even without adding iron mordant. Others were basically acidic. But with Baking Soda, the PH changed to alkaline and the dying liquid changed to blu-black color.　As a next step, I would like to create a diagram that links the PH and dyed colors to organize them.

Dokudami

Dokudami is a weed that can be found all over Japan, and it even grows in my house. It has been used as folk medicine and tea since ancient times.　I did a small experiment as follows.

Recipe:　　

  • Fabric: Cotton, Linen, Silk, Wool

  • Dokudami leaves 115g　　　　

  • Water 500ml　　　
  • Scoring: None 　　　　

  • Mordant: None

  • Tool: Pots, cups, mesh bags, spoon, chopsticks, globes, mask, scale, Heater 　　　

Dyeing process
  1. Collect Dokudami leaves.
  2. Measure the weight.
  3. Place the leaves in a mesh bag, add water 500ml, heat fof 30 min.
Swatches


Swatch Library

I wondered if there was a way to make the samples easier to read without taking up too much space, so I decided to make them into a zigzag-shaped book.　　


Safflower & Murakumo Shibori

I reffed to the recipe and tried safflower. If you use equal weights of safflower and fiber, or twice as much safflower as fiber, safflower will produce the darkest shade.

Recipe: 　　　　　

  • Fabric: Linen 90g
  • Safflower 20g　　　　
  • Water 500ml　　　
  • Soda Ash 5g ( for scouring)
  • Warm water 1l
  • Soda Asg 2g ( after dying)　　
  • citric acid　2g　
  • Mordant: None
  • Tool: Pots, cups, spoon, chopsticks, globes, mask, scale, Heater 　　　

Dyeing process

  1. Weigh Linen and Safflower
  2. Soak Linen in soda ash solution for 20 minute
  3. Put Safflower in 1l water for 2 hours
  4. Mesure PH of dying liquid. It was 8.5. At this point, the color was yellow.
  5. Add Soda Ash 2g in the dying liquid. Then　measure PH. It was about PH11.2.
  6. While measuring the pH, add citric acid little by little while stirring until it reaches about 5. The color was still yellow.
  7. Wrap the fabric around the stick. This time I wrapped it around a soft stick I had on hand. Squeeze the folds together and secure the ends with a rubber band to prevent them from moving.
  8. Put the fabric into the liquid, and leave it one night. The color was changed to Pink

Pigment

I reffered the document of Alve to make the pigment.

Recipe:
- Leftover 35ml (Onion+iron)
- Alum 1.8g
- Baking soda 0.6g
- Hot Water 5ml - Soy milk

Process
  1. Dissolve Alum in the hot water
  2. Add Baking soda into the cup of leftover, then stir to dissolve
  3. Pour the alum solution into the cup slowly.　Stir it gently.
  4. Leave for 3hours
  5. Filter the liquid using coffee filter
  6. Dry it (used a dehydrater)
  7. scrap the pigments of the filter

Leftovers is on the left. When the alum solution was added, it became foamy as shown on the right.

After 3hours, filtered the liquid using coffee filter.

Dried pigment was artistic. I gathered the pigments on the coffee filtered.　　　　 As a test, I made texture painting paste by adding the same amount of soy milk to a small amount of Pigment and mashing it with a spoon.

I drew circles on scoured cotton with paint brush. Since I didn't use a grinder, there were some grains left.

Ink

I tried to make Ink using Gum Arabic as binder. The powders were bought at store.

Recipe:

  • Turmeric powder spoon x 1
  • Butterfly pea powder spoon x1
  • Gum Arabic 7g
  • water
Process
  1. Dissolve Gum Arabic with water in a cup. Stir it gently as Gum may stick to the cup. It won't melt right away, so let it for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  2. Put Turmeric powder into a cup and add 1 spoon water
  3. Put Butterfly pea powder into a cup and add 1 spoon water
  4. Add Gum Arabic sollution, one spoon for each cup.
  5. Draw on paper using paint brush

The left photo is Gum Arabic particle and water. It was dissolved as center one, and added into the butterfly pea power on the right.


My learning outcome

  • I tried mordant, natural dyeing, pigment, and shibori technique. Although I haven't mastered it enough to create the color I wants, I've learned the process and have come to really love dyeing.
  • Sometimes the timing of my recipes isn't optimal. For example, I left the stain overnight and went to bed. It is important to consider the recipe is as an example and check for changes visually or with a PH sensor.
  • I learned not only how to dye, but also the Zero Waste Natural Color Journey, which utilize everything including leftovers. I think this way of thinking is dyeing into me through my weekly classes.
  • I learned the shibori technique at school when I was a child, but this time I researched the technique again and tried Murakumo Shibori, which I had never heard of, and was successful. This is effective when you want to put a pattern on a large piece of fabric.
  • It was interesting to experiment with mordanting and PH combinations, but I got tired and prone to mistakes. Advance process management and time management are important.