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4. BIOCHROMES

RESEARCH

Biochromes refer to the natural pigments found in plants, animals, and microorganisms, responsible for producing colour. In the context of natural dyes and sustainable materials, biochromes offer an environmentally friendly alternative to synthetic dyes. Resources for biochromes include various plants, fungi (mushrooms), and microorganisms that produce these pigments. Exploring these natural resources opens possibilities for sustainable practices in textile dyeing, art, and design, promoting ecological balance and reducing reliance on harmful chemicals commonly used in synthetic dye production.

BIOCHROMES RESOURCES

BIOCHROMES IN POLAND

    𖡎 Buckthorn: yellow, green, and brown
    𖡎 Madder: red
    𖡎 Oak: browns and helpS as a mordant in other dyes
    𖡎 Alder: black and brown
    𖡎 Walnut: brown dyeing, especially for wool and leather
    𖡎 Tansy: yellow dyes
    𖡎 St. John’s Wort: yellow and red dyes
    𖡎 Common Reed: yellow tones
    𖡎 Weld: vibrant yellow dye (Köhler et al., 2023).

BIOCHROMES FORMS

    𖡎 Ink
    𖡎 Dye
    𖡎 Pigment

Mordant dyes are a type of dye that require the use of a mordant — a chemical or substance that helps the dye bond more effectively with fibers. Mordants, such as alum, tannin, or iron, enhance the colourfastness of the dye, ensuring it doesn’t fade or wash out easily. These dyes are used in natural dyeing processes, where the mordant helps the natural pigment form a strong attachment to the textile. Different mordants can also alter the final colour of the dye, providing a range of hues from the same source material.

0-WASTE DYEING

COLOUR THEORY

Colour theory is the foundation for understanding how colours interact and influence design. At the core of colour theory is the colour wheel, which organizes colours based on their relationships.

Richard Waller's "Tabula Colorum" is a significant early contribution to the study of colour theory, published in 1686 as part of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. Waller's work aimed to categorize and standardize colours by creating a colour chart, which visually represented various hues.

ARTISTS INSPO

MIRIAM C. RICE

In the 1970s, Miriam C. Rice pioneered the use of mushroom dyes, discovering that various fungi could produce a wide spectrum of natural pigments. Her third book, “Mushrooms for Dyes, Paper, Pigments and Myco-Stix™”, summarised her 40 years worth of work with fungal dyes, pigments, and paper, was published by Mushrooms for Color Press in December 2007. Rice's research was ground-breaking in the field of natural dyeing, particularly for artists and textile enthusiasts seeking sustainable alternatives to synthetic dyes. Rice's work, which focused on extracting vibrant colours from mushrooms, led to the publication of her influential book "Mushrooms for Color". This laid the foundation for modern explorations of natural dyes and their applications in the textile and fiber arts community. More information can be found on the Mashroom for Color website.

INDIA FLINT

India Flint is a multidisciplinary artist whose work weaves together a deep connection to the natural world and the landscape she inhabits. Describing herself as a gardener, forest wanderer, stargazer, and stitcher, Flint is best known for her pioneering discovery of the eucalyptus ecoprint technique, using plant materials to create natural dyes and prints on cloth. Her practice centers on ecologically sustainable contact printing from plants and found objects, blending the visual and written poetics of place and memory. Flint’s artistic approach is holistic, encompassing walking, drawing, assemblage, mending, and stitching as ways to map and document her interaction with the land. Working with cloth, paper, stone, biological materials, and even discarded human artifacts, her process has been described as using "the earth as the printing plate and time as the press." Each day’s work, grounded in a love of place (topophilia), begins with a walk, gathering inspiration, materials, and marks that inform her installations, prints, writings, and sculptures.

ABOUBAKAR FOFANA

Aboubakar Fofana is a Malian artist and master of natural dyes, particularly renowned for his work with indigo and traditional West African dyeing techniques. His practice is deeply rooted in cultural preservation, sustainability, and ecological respect.

His project "Ka Touba Farafina Ye (Africa Blessing)" is an ambitious and symbolic artwork by the Malian-born artist, comprising 54 lambs dyed using indigo, with each lamb representing a country in Africa. Fofana, a master of natural dyes, particularly indigo, uses the lambs as a metaphor for the African diaspora, drawing parallels between the migratory nature of pasture animals and the experiences of displaced African people seeking stability. The dyed lambs, exhibited in a pen as part of an art show, symbolize the journey of leaving behind danger and scarcity in search of security.

ALL U NEED 2 KNOW

TOOLS

    𖡎 Pots
    𖡎 Measuring cups
    𖡎 Spoons
    𖡎 Silicone spatula
    𖡎 Scale
    𖡎 Bowls
    𖡎 Containers
    𖡎 Tape
    𖡎 Marker
    𖡎 Gloves
    𖡎 Fine mesh strainer
    𖡎 Heat source
    𖡎 Drying rack
    𖡎 pH strips
    𖡎 Plastic sheeting or newspaper

MAIN INGREDIENTS

    𖡎 Baking Soda
    𖡎 Iron
    𖡎 Alum
    𖡎 Arabic or Guar Gum (will explain a difference later)

NATURAL DYES AND COLOURS

(Used this week:)

    𖡎 Lavender: Soft greys and muted purples
    𖡎 Onion Peels: Yellow to orange-brown
    𖡎 Spinach: Pale yellow-green to light green
    𖡎 Pomegranate: Soft yellow to golden hues
    𖡎 Cabbage: Light pink to purple (can shift to blue or green depending on pH)
    𖡎 Spirulina: Light green to teal
    𖡎 Eucalyptus: Warm oranges to reddish-browns
    𖡎 Bark (various types): Browns, ranging from tan to dark chocolate, depending on the type of bark
    𖡎 Campeche/Logwood: Dark purple to nearly black, depending on the concentration and mordant used.

(The ones I want to explore in the future:)

    𖡎 Cochineal: Vibrant red to deep pinks and purples
    𖡎 Indigo: One of the most reliable natural sources for rich, deep blues, often used for centuries in traditional textile dyeing.
    𖡎 Black: ???

WHAT FIBRES CAN I DYE?

Many natural fibers can be dyed effectively with natural dyes. These fibers have a natural ability to absorb and retain colour from plant-based, insect, or mineral dyes.

NATURAL FIBERS

    𖡎 Cotton
    𖡎 Linen
    𖡎 Silk
    𖡎 Wool
    𖡎 Hemp
    𖡎 Bamboo
    𖡎 Ramie
    𖡎 Alpaca Wool
    𖡎 Cashmere
    𖡎 Viscous

BIOMATERIALS

    𖡎 Coconut Fiber
    𖡎 Agave Fiber
    𖡎 Lotus Fiber
    𖡎 Nettle Fiber
    𖡎 Soy Fiber
    𖡎 Kapok
    𖡎 Milk Fiber
    𖡎 Chitosan
    𖡎 Banana Fiber
    𖡎 Pineapple Fiber (Piña)
    𖡎 Coir

(For the project we used: cotton, viscous, linen, silk.)

STEP BY STEP: HOW TO NATURALLY DYE TEXTILES?

    1. Weigh your dry textiles and fibers.
    2. Calculate tannin, scouring agent, mordant, and dyes.
    3. Weigh tannin, mordant, and dyes.
    4. Prepare your scouring bath: Boil the fabric with a scouring agent (like soda ash) to remove any oils or residues.
    5. Soak the fabric in a tannin bath, it helps prepare the fabric for dyeing.
    6. Mordant the fabric: Boil your fabric in a mordant solution (like alum) to help the dye stick better.
    7. Prepare the dye bath: Simmer your dye materials in water to extract the colour.
    8. Dye your fabric: Add the fabric to the dye bath and simmer for 30 minutes to an hour, stirring occasionally.
    9. Rinse and dry: After dyeing, rinse the fabric in cold water and let it air dry.

In our dyeing process, we used three different methods to alter the outcome of the colours:

    𖡎 Neutral: dye bath without any additives, allowing the natural colour of the dye to come through without modification.
    𖡎 Alum: mordant to help brighten and fix the colour to the fabric, making the colour more vivid and ensuring it lasts longer.
    𖡎 Iron: added to the dye bath to darken the colours, creating deeper, more muted tones by reacting with the dye to shift the colour towards darker shades, like grey or black.

This approach allowed for a range of colour variations from the same dye source.

BLACK EXPERIMENTS

I experimented with creating a black ink using pomegranate as the primary dye source.

    𖡎 Pomegranate peel (skin only, no fruit) dye bath (cooked for few hours)
    𖡎 A lot of iron
    𖡎 0/5 teaspoon of guar gum

Adding this amount of guar gum made the paste very thick, so I had to continuously add more pomegranate dye bath to reach the desired consistency.

We used it to colour a silk fabric that gave dark grey colour.

Zander experimented with achieving black dye using the following materials:

    𖡎 Cabbage dye
    𖡎 Carob
    𖡎 Compeche
    𖡎 Onion
    𖡎 Lots of iron
    𖡎 1 teaspoon of dish soap to help the colour to spread out evenly

GUAR VS ARABIC GUM – WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?

Guar gum thickens the dye substantially, making it more like a paste, ideal for structured or resist dyeing techniques.

Arabic gum helps the dye bind to the fabric or material while maintaining a smoother, more flowing consistency, better for even coverage or light dyeing.

DYEING (DYING) FOR BLACK: EXCLUSIVE COLOUR FOR ELITES

Achieving a deep black colour in the past was a complex and costly process, making it a symbol of wealth and status. Unlike other colours that were more readily available from natural dyes, creating a true, long-lasting black required multiple dye baths and the use of expensive mordants like iron. Natural black dyes often faded or turned brown over time, and the process to get a rich, stable black was labor-intensive and required significant skill. As a result, black clothing became a mark of the bourgeoisie and the elite, signifying both wealth and access to the finest materials and skilled artisans. Wearing black was seen as prestigious, reflecting the wearer's high social standing and affluence.

I find black so intriguing that I definitely want to explore it more in the future, probably experimenting on biomaterials to see what kinds of rich, dark shades I can create.

REFERENCES

    𖡎 Davey, K. (2020) The most Elusive Colour In The Spectrum, Or How To Master Black, the thread. Available at: https://blog.fabrics-store.com/2020/12/06/black/ [Accessed: 18/10/2024].
    𖡎 Decker, K. (2017) The fundamentals of understanding color theory, 99designs. Available at: https://99designs.com/blog/tips/the-7-step-guide-to-understanding-color-theory/ [Accessed: 18/10/2024].
    𖡎 History (2020) How did Europeans dye their garments black around 1800?, History Stack Exchange. Available at: https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/55998/how-did-europeans-dye-their-garments-black-around-1800 [Accessed 18/10/2024].
    𖡎 Köhler, P., Bystry, A. and Łuczaj, Ł. (2023) ‘Plants and Other Materials Used for Dyeing in the Present Territory of Poland, Belarus and Ukraine according to Rostafiński’s Questionnaire from 1883’, Plants, 12(7), p. 1482. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12071482 [Accessed: 18/10/2024].