4. BioChromes

✂︎Research & Ideation✂

I am going into Biochromes week with so much excitement. I have had little experience with the world of living colours but I am eager to put on a lab coat and see where it takes me.

During Cecilia Raspanti's introductory lecture I really resonated with the idea of locality and using the practice of creating natural dyes as a way to reconnect with the nature around us. I am very interested in how the textiles and colours we create this week could be an expression of landscape, craft and heritage. I love the idea that something you make or wear in its very fibres, reflects where you come from and your community. I am interested in opening my eyes to the botanics around me and thinking about how I could make something that expresses my connection to a sense of place.

I have included below some inspiration images and also some projects which create material archives in order to document and describe a landscape:

1. Araminta Campbell, Back to the origins of tweed.- A material expression of locality and heritage using all natural fibres and dyes.
2. Laurie Powell, Library, 2021.-a colour library of clay from across Northumberland.
3. Silvino Gonzalez-Anthotype Printing.
4. Laurie Powell, this is the colour of my dreams, 2024.- Artwork using pigment extracted from Woad plant.
5. Scott Hunter, Soil Chromatography- Using soil chromatography to indicates the chemical, physical and biological characteristics of the earth to provide an overview of each soil’s vitality and health.
6. Scott Hunter, Am I the Wasteland? 2021.- Iron based printing to explain the soil chemistry of contaminated earth.
7. Natsai Audrey Chieza, Project Coelicolor: Assemblage 001. Faber Futures, London 2017- Bacterial Dyeing!

Whilst researching I also got thinking about Harris Tweed and the traditions of using local wool and natural dyes derived from things such as Crotal a limestone lichen native to the islands of Scotland. I found the images below on this website and was so fascinated in how the entire process of making the tweed was localised including washing the wool in the closest stream.

I found this documentary about the process fascinating:

I am excited to learn more about Local Color and the Biochromes Archive that explores and maps the natural colours of the city of Amsterdam.

Cecilia Raspanti's magic box of dye stuffs, natural dyes, pigments, pastes etc.

As a new arrival, I think it could be beautiful to connect with my new home in this way.

〠Documentation Workflow〠

Assignment Criteria: Week 4

• 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)

Top Tip!!!

1. If you get your hands absolutely covered in Campeche (Logwood) purple dye just like me, mix some citric acid crystals and soap and scrub at your hands! Magic will happen and all will disapear!

Inspiration!!!

• For beautfiful and creative outcomes Riley Cox

• For clear and precise documentation and aesthetic display - Ruby Lennox

• For beautiful documentation- Surzhana Radnaeva

In Cecilia's introductory lecture she laid out the basics of natural colour.

What are Biochromes?

Biochromes are coloring matter produced by a living organism. Biochromes are antithetical to the human and planetry harmful chemical dyes used in the textile industry as they center around being:

1. Locally Positive
2. Biobased and Compostable
3. Zero Waste

How are they made?

BIOCHROME SOURCES:

- Botanical (seeds, fruits, leaves, flowers, bark, wood, roots, berries)
- Bacterial (bacteria)
- Minerals (oxides, ochre, clay, soils)
- Animal (insects, mollusks)
- Fungal (mushrooms, mould)

BIOCHROME FORMS

- Ink (dense, soluble liquid)
- Dye (soluble, liquid bath)
- Pigment (insoluble powder)

(and from pigments you can create SCREEN PRINTING PASTE, TEMPERA, OIL PAINT, WATERCOLOUR, TEXTILE PAINTING PASTE)

This entire holistic and zero waste journey is beautifully summarised in Cecilia's infographic:

Illustration by Cecilia Raspanti of bioshades.bio

Weld through various stages of a zero waste natural dye journey. Right to left: Seed, Flower,Dye, Printing Paste, Lake Pigment, Recycled Dye.

For further exploration I have provided useful links below:

• Biochromes Colour Archive

• Bioshades

• Mushroom Colour Atlas

• Local Colour

• Living Colour Collective

❥DAY 1: MAKING NATURAL DYES❥

We began the week with the most magical day of colour wizardry with Cecilia.

We began working with:

✰DYES✰

A coloured substance that chemically bond to the substrate to which it is being applied.

You can dye:

• Fibres
• Blends
• Yarn
• Fabrics
• Garments

We decided we wanted to make a full colour palette with Natural Dyes. We wanted to create samples for all the basic colours in the colour wheel on Cotton Paper, Cotton Fabric and Dutch Wool.

We quickly got to work preparing our materials and compiling a list of colours and botanical dye stuff we would need to make them. I will take you through our process below:

What you will need:

Although not essential, we did have our beautiful textiles lab to work in which Cecilia transformed into a potion station (it was tidier when we first arrived!):

Ingredients:

• Natural dye stuff (see table)
• Sodium carbonate
• Aluminium Potassium Sulphate
• Iron sulphate
• Citric acid
• Water
• Vinegar
• Ethanol

Materials:

• Plant Fibres: 100% Cotton Fabric, 100% Cotton Paper (acid free).
• Animal Fibres: Dutch Wool, Silk.

Tools:

• Hob
• Pots with Lids
• Beakers and Container of Various Sizes
• Sieves
• Spoons, Ladles and Tongs
• Weighing Scales
• Thermometer
• Mortar and Pestle
• Labels/ Paper tape
• Camera
• Scissors and Ruler
• Cotton Thread
• Clamps

IN TERMS OF HEALTH AND SAFETY:

• Ensure that you do not have food or drink at your workstation and wash your hands thoroughly after dyeing.

• Wear black clothes and gloves if you have sensitive skin.

• If foraging for your dye stuff ensure you always ask permission and taking from nature responsibly by doing your research before hand. Here is an article with some guidelines: or Jsaon Logan has some writing on the topic.

Network of Nature

Process and workflow

⑂STEP 1: Weighing the Fibres⑂

The most important term we learnt is WEIGHT OF FIBRES (WoF).

This is the first thing we do. We weigh the materials we are going to dye because we need this number to calculate our dye stuff, mordants, tannins and scouring agents which we calculate based on X % of WoF.

For our collective experiments we decided to have a standard unit of each material, each dye experiment is based on these weights:

DUTCH WOOL: 
Individual- 12g 
Total- 120g (1 group per dye pot, 10 dye pots)

COTTON FABRIC:
Individual- 0.75g
Total- 37.5g (50 pieces)

COTTON PAPER: 
Individual: 0.75g
Total- 34g (45 pieces)

TOTAL VEGETABLE FIBRES: 72g
TOTAL ANIMAL FIBRES: 120g
TOTAL FIBRES: 192g

⦿STEP 2: Scouring⦿

Scouring is cleaning the textiles of dirt and oil to prepare them for dyeing

We do this by cleaning the fibre in hot water and a scouring agent. We used SODIUM CARBONATE for this.

We only needed to do this with the plant fibres which we boiled for 25 minutes. We simply rinsed the wool in warm water as the wool we source is already clean (it is important to use warm water as an intermediary step so the wool doesn't get shocked and shrink when we put it in the boiling water). It was not necessary to clean the paper as it was acid free and cleaned in manufactuering.

After scouring, we strained and rinsed them.

✹ STEP 3: Mordanting✹

A mordant is a connector between the Textile and the colour.

The definition of a mordant is not static and there is a lot of research going on into how they work and what we classify as mordants, binders or tannins. However, in our case we can see it as the intermediatory substance in a chain which allows the dye to fix to the textile.

Mordants can be Metallic or Plant based.

We used ALUMINIUM POTASSIUM SULPHATE (Aluin) as our mordant.

To calculate how much mordant to add, we used 15% of our total WoF which was 27.75g. We put this in a pot of water and heated all our textiles in it for 45 mins.

We moved the material around enough to allow the mordant to be taken up evenly but not enough to felt the wool.

(If you are using your mordant water again, you can assume that it still has 50% mordanting power and calculate how much you need to add based on half strength.)

After take this out and clean in tepid water.

⏦STEP 4: DYE BATHS⏦

Our first step was to calculate how much material we would have per dye pot. We wanted 10 pots.

COTTON------+/-50------10 groups of 5----- 0.75g----3.75g
PAPER-------+/-50------10 groups of 4-----0.75------3g
WOOL--------?----------10 groups ----------1g-------10g

TOTAL: 16.75g

We rounded this to 25g to have extra dye to experiment and test with later.

With this calculation we could prepare the Immersion Dye Baths and calculate how much Dye stuff we would need to colour all our textiles.

Top: Carolina weighing madder. Bottom left to right: Weld and Annato Seeds.

We added water to our weighed dyed stuff and transfered them to a pan to be gently heated. When we were pleased with the colour of the dye we dipped our textiles in. We experimented with how long to leave different materials in for and got a variety of shades from each bath.

Top left to right: Chinese Rhubarb ombre dip, Annato Seed Dye bath. Bottom left to right: Campeche Dye bath on cotton paper, Mallow dye bath.

Below is a table containing the recipe and notes for each of the Immersion dye baths we made.

✤RECIPE TABLE✤

Dye Stuff	Source	Colour	(%) of WoF	Amount (g)	Modifier/ Notes	Results
Madder	Plant, Root	Red	100%	25g	Must be kept between 60-67 degrees celsius.
Annato	Plant, Seed	Orange	100%	25g	Added Sodium Carbonate
Chinese Rhubarb	Plant, Dried	Orangey Yellow	100%	25g
Weld	Plant, Dried	Yellow	50%	12.5g
Dyer's Chamomile	Plant, Dried	Yellow	200%	50g
Phragmites	Plant, Reeds	Green	100%	25g	Added Sodium Carbonate
Mallow (Holyhock) Plant, Flower	Blue	50%	12.5g
Campeche (Logwood)	Plant, Wood	Purple	50%	12.5g	Added Ethanol
Cochineal	Animal, Insect	Pink	10%	2.5g	Ground to powder first
Horse Chesnut	Plant, Husks	Brown and Black	?	100g	Added Sodium Carbonate

EXPERIMENTING WITH DYE BATHS AND MODIFIERS

We experimented with modifiers to extend the range of colours available from a single dye bath. It is a good idea to keep a portion of your dye bath unchanged and work in a smaller pot.

We played with these modifiers to create more shades from our dye baths:

1. Iron Sulphate (which tends to make shades darker and "sadder.) (Also a mordant)
2. Copper Sulphate (Also, a mordant)
3. Citric Acid (an acidic modifier)
4. Vinegar (an acidic modifier)
5. Sodium Carbonate (an alkaline modifier)
6. Chalk (Calcium Carbonate,an alkaline modifier)

Video of Cecilia modifying the colour of a Alkanet dye/ Ethanol mixture (RED) to blue with Soda and purple with water by changing the solutions ph.

From left to right: Campeche dye with Vinegar changes the colour from pinky red to yellow, Campeche dye with copper sulphate turns blue.

Dye Stuff	Source	Colour	(%) of WoF	Amount (g)	Modifier/ Notes	Results
Campeche (Logwood)	Plant, Wood	Blue	50%	12.5g	Added Copper Sulphate
Campeche (Logwood)	Plant, Wood	Blue	50%	12.5g	Added Copper Sulphate and Iron Sulphate
Campeche (Logwood)	Plant, Wood	Green	50%	12.5g	Strong Campeche/ Copper mixed with a little weld	TOP LEFT
Campeche (Logwood)	Plant, Wood	Green	50%	12.5g	Weaker Campeche with lots of Weld dye added	BOTTOM LEFT
Campeche (Logwood)	Plant, Wood	Green	50%	12.5g	Campeche and Copper then dipped in Weld	BOTTOM RIGHT
Cochineal	Animal, Insect	Peachy Pink	10%	2.5g	Add Citric Acid	TOP RIGHT
Cochineal	Animal, Insect	Lighter Pink	10%	2.5g	Add Soda	BOTTOM LEFT
Cochineal	Animal, Insect	Pink	10%	2.5g	Add Chalk	BOTTOM RIGHT
Chinese Rhubarb	Plant, Dried	Orangey Yellow	100%	25g	Add Soda
Chinese Rhubarb	Plant, Dried	Orangey Yellow	100%	25g	Add Campeche dye and iron
Madder	Plant, Root	Red	100%	25g	Add Iron Sulphate

MAKING INK

We were able to make a natural ink using Oak Galls which are abnormal tree growths caused by oak gall wasps. They are a natural tannin.

We ground up the galls (using only the ones with holes as this means the wasp inside escaped) and added Iron sulphate and Water. This produced a beautiful black/ purple ink that is stable and does not corrode the paper.

❉MAKING BACTERIAL DYES❉

We experimented with Bacteria Dying using Janthinobacterium lividum, a bacteria which produced Violacein, a purple staining biochrome.

It lives on the back of certain frogs in a symbiosis. The bacteria protecting the frog from other microbes, whilst the bacteria feeds of the CO2 expelled from the frogs skin.

METHOD:

Our Biolab is Biosafety level 1, which means we only work with bacteria that is not harmful to us or the environment. However, it is still important to be responsible and maintain best practice in order to stay safe when working with any kind of bacteria or lab equiptment.

Lab Health and Safety!!!

1. Tie hair up and ensure no bits are dangling or swinging.
2. Don't wear loose hanging clothing or jewellery and put on a lab coat.
3. No food or drink in the lab
4. No phones, cameras or notebooks in the lab, there are ones in the lab you can use.
5. Disinfect your hands upon entering and exiting the lab and wash your hands thoroughly immediately after leaving the lab.
6. Keep doors and windows closed during an experiment.

Prepare the fabric

We chose to dye silk. We wanted to create patterns by folding the fabric and controlling which surfaces of the fabric were exposed to the bacteria. We played with sewing the fabric together and trying different shibori techniques to do this. I ended up with a bit of a random scrunch! We then placed the fabric in a petri dish.

Prepare the growing medium.

We then started to make the growing medium for the bacteria- essentially its food! For this we weighed these ingredients using analytical scales and mixed these ingredients in a bottle with 250ml of water (distilled):

Standard Nutrient Agar: 7.5g
LB Broth (Miller): 6.75g
Glycerin (99.5%): 2ml
Distilled Water: 250ml

Put it in the Autoclave

We then put the bottle, as well as out petri dishes and fabric in the Autoclave machine (similar to a pressure cooker) which steralises them and ensures no contamination from us or our environment.

It is important not to fully close the lid of the bottle when you put it in the Autoclave as there is risk of explosion.

We closed the air release valve and allowed the pressure and temperature to increase.

When it reached 120 degrees, we began a timer for 20 minutes which will fully steralise the materials.

Combine

When the materials had been steralised we removed them from the Autoclave and let them cool down. Then we combine our fabric with the growing medium in a sterile manner. It is important to not talk or breathe on the petri dish during this process to avoid contamination:

• Hold bottle of growing medium with a heat protected glove and unscrew lid.
• Heat the lip of the bottle with the bunsen burner flame to steralise it.
• Open the petri dish with one hand and pour the growing medium over the textile with the other. Holding the lid over the textile always.
• Close the petri dish lid and bottle.

Inoculation

Inoculation is the process of introducing something such as bacteria, a virus, or a fungus.

To do this we first wiped a surface and set up a bunsen burner ready for inoculation.

Around the burner we applied ethanol in a ring. As the ethanol evaporates, rises and falls with the heat cyclically, this creates a sterile bubble for us to work in.

To inoculate the fabric and growing medium in our petri dishes we:

• We sterilised an inoculation loop in the bunsen burner flame.
• Opened the petri dish lid with one hand
• With the other tap the inoculation loop against the side of the petri dish to cool it. You will hear a little sizzling noise.
• Then, lightly scrape the loop over the bateria, picking up a sample.
• Open the lid of the petri dish with the fabric inside and lightly tap the loop on the textile and the growing medium, distributing the bacteria all around your dish.
• Steralise your inoculation loop again and close your petri dish lid.

Seal your petri dish and INCUBATE

Finally, seal your petri dish with Parafilm Tape so no bacteria can get in or out. Then, place your dish in the incubator for several days to give your bacteria time to grow big and strong and many!

We will check in soon and see how this went!!!

RESULTS

⁌PRECIPITATION AND MAKING PIGMENTS⁍

After we had well and truly experimented with everything the dye baths could offer, it was time to precipitate them! This is a wonderful thing about the Natural Dying process laid out in Cecilia Raspanti's above Infographic. All your dyes can be recycled and transformed into other forms of colour. It is zero waste and opens up lots of opportunity for play and experimentation.

With the used dye baths we can extract the lake pigment and use it to make a variety of mediums:

• Screen Printing Paste
• Tempera
• Oil Paint
• Watercolour
• Textile Painting Paste

• In order to do this, we first strain our dye bath leftovers through cotton fabric and combine it with a METAL and an ALKALI.

METAL: ALUMINIUM POTASSIUM SULPHATE ALKALI: SODIUM CARBONATE

The tricky thing is deciding how much to add as you will have varying amounts of dye with varying amounts of pigment in it. We simply had to eyeball and experiment with this using about 5-10g of each.

• We dissolved first the Aluin in boiling water then added it to the mixture and stirred. We then did the same with the Soda. This created a lot of effervescence and you will begin to see the dye split.

• Leave this to sit and watch as the pigment falls to the bottom of the container and clear water rises to the top.

• When it is fully seperated you can pour off the water and dry out the pigment on filter paper.

• Grind the pigment and store it dry.

We tried to reduce our waste by precipitating all our dye baths and we have an amazing selection of colours drying off:

✐DISPLAY AND DISSEMINATION✐

It was very clear by the end of the week that we had far exceeded our goal of making a full colour wheel! We had done many unexpected experiments along the way and had created some beautifully subtle shades that took up differently across each medium.

Now it was down to myself, Carolina and Cecilia to think of the best way to present the colourful chaos we had created.

Our inital brainstorm looked a bit like this:

We decided to make a sample book that incorperated a colour wheel with all our cotton fabric samples on the first page. Then we would display the wool and paper samples catagorised by colour and source.

OH, and it would be in the shape of a star.. because why not!

Here is a screenshot of our rhino workings in which Carolina took the lead. You can download the DXF file for the sample book below ¹

♕FINAL OUTCOME♕

Here is our final outcome, including the full sized Colour Wheel we made for the materials library here at Waag Futurelab. I am so pleased with the outcome and had the best week working with our fab team.

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1. File: DXF file for Sample Book ↩