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4. BioChromes

Notes

=> living color

=> any pigment produced by a living organism

=> it has de ability of changing

=> Bc resources: botanica - bacteria - fungi - insects and molusks - mineral

Research

I've started investigating and working with Biochromes a few years ago in BsAs, extracting pigments for ink and cosmetic purposes, but mostly dyes wich I incorporated in some art textiles pieces.

Previous work and application of Biochromes

Art work serie: Oráculos

Textile collage

Natural dye samples: Onion peels - Mate - Aguacate - Eucalipto

Eco print samples

Inks and recipies

References:

Recipies and dyeing process

Modifiers: soda ash- copper - iron - white vinager

Yerba MATE

Ilex paraguariensis

Yerba mate is a native plant from south america, and its leaves are use to prepare a every day beverage, really tradicional in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and south of Brazil. I chose to work with this plant because its my every day "waste" and fortunatly has dyeing properties. I´ve been saving and dehidrating the herb since my first day in Fabricademy at the BDC.

Mate tutorial

Dye

- Dyeing material: 300 gr yerba mate
- Fabric: 44gr (linen, cotton, wool, silk, bamboo, felt)
- Water: 2 lts
- Boil the herb for 30 to 60 mins => filter inmediatly cause mate stars reabsorving the dye 
- Boil for 30 mins with fabrics and leave to rest for some hours so that absorbs as much color as it can
- Once its dry iron the textile - it will help to fix the color

Results

Color palette

Experimentation with diferent vegetables + cochinilla to created our color palette at the BDC.

Recipies

115 gr **onion skins**
112 gr fabric
2,25 l water


184 gr **eucalyptus bark**
112 gr fabric
2,25 l water


300 gr **yerba mate**
112 gr fabric
2,25 l water


4.6 gr **cochinilla powder**
44 gr fabric
2,25 l water

245 gr **avocado pits**
44  gr
1 l water

Final results

mate - eucalito- onion peels - cochinilla - aguacate

INK

For the ink we boiled some dye bath until we obtained 100ml of liquid => we used a recipe that ive learned from Luciana Marrone

=> 100 ml of dye bath + 1 gr guar gum => mix it till it gets to a nice and thick consistency

=> add 1 drop of rosemary esencial oil as a natural conservant

Yerba Mate

- Ingredient: 41 g
- Water: 1 l
- Reduce to 100 ml 
- Mix with 1 g guar gum

Hibiscus

- Ingredient: 34 g
- Water: 1 l
- Reduce to 100 ml 
- Mix with 1 g guar gum

Turmeric

- Ingredient: 20 g
- Water: 1 l
- Reduce to 100 ml 
- Mix with 1 g guar gum

Reference

Final Inks

=> the inks lacked of some consistence for stamping, and a little transparent too => we added some "blanco españa" (white pigment that has some carbonate calcium) + magnesium stearate

Stamp + Print

We decided to create a stamp using the modul of last week assigment with linoleo and the laser cut, to print some totebags and use our fresh inks. I was curious to see what a tanin bath would do to my fabric so I soak the totebag in it, althought the colour of the ink didnt change much the fabric got brownish.

Final result

𖦹 Notes & thoughs 𖦹

  • Each material dye has its own particularities when it come to extracting color
  • Leaving the textiles resting for hours, even days, gives very nice colours
  • I very interested in making inks for textil and printting