4. BioChromes

Assignment Checklist

1. Write briefly about what I learned in the last lecture.
2. Do my own research to find the best inspiration and generate an idea for this week.
3. Develop the idea so I can gather as many pictures and concepts as possible.
4. Take pictures/screenshots throughout the process.
5. Master the techniques of mordanting, dyeing, and working with pigments.
6. Produce at least:
7. 1 natural dye on fabric using modifiers
8. 1 ink
9. 1 pigment
10. Write a clear and understandable workflow.
11. Final outcome: demonstrate understanding of the various stages of color—dye, inks, and pigments.

BEFORE YOU START YOUR WEEK..

Remember to get advanatege as much as you can from this week, there is no limits of the colours/Inks/Pigments you can produce

Enjoy it and take picture !!

Inspiration

LET'S START THIS WEEK WITH GREEN

After doing my research I was surprised be the numbers of shades we can get from only green plants !!

So I decided that my assignment for this week will go around green Plants ( parsley - mint - olive leaves )

Pictures Credits

1+2 > MELISSA MARRY JENKINS ART

3 > Pinterest refernece

4 > Pinterest refernece

5 > Myra Made Clor

6 > Fran Rushworth

Tip

Here,s the codes I used to create the colors of the word Parsley - Mint - Olive Leaves parsley - mint - olive leaves

Of course you can ask Chat-GPT for any shade number you want

Process and workflow

All you need for this assignment is:

  1. Gloves + Aipron because you will get messy and you will like it!!
  2. pots & Jars depending on how much you want to make Dyes/Inks/Pigments
  3. Natural Plants to use their colors
  4. Plant OR Animal Fabrics - You can experiment both -

Lab Team Work

Natural fabrics, Dyes and modifiers

We started this week by group work in our lab with our instructor Claudia we learned about kinds of fabrics that can dyes, Natural dyes and modifiers !

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Preparing our fabrics to be DYED (STEPS)

By following this steps:

1.Sourting the fabrics to Plant & Animal fabrics

(Each kind of fabrics will be trated in a way)

2.Scale the fabrics (W.O.F) when still dry, this will be important to determine the amount of mordant will be needed

3.Scouring is the process to remove the oil and waxes that are naturally present in the fibers.

A. Plant Fibers : Boil the fibers for 30min adding sodium carbonate at 90C -2 Spoons every 4 liter water-

B. Animal Fibers : no scouring is needed. Warm water and soap is good enough to clean the fibers to receive mordants.

4.Mordanting : transform dyes from soluble to insoluble we add the ALUM ( we added 12% of fabrics weight) and let it in warm water for 30-60 minutes.. then we rinse and squeeze tha fabrics.

5.Extracting the Dye

A. Chop the raw materials into little parts

B. Heat until they boil and let it simmer for 1h

C. Soak overnight / add a pinch of salt to achieve a brighter color

Here we used Red cabbage and onion skin.

6.Dyeing

I tried to dye using both onion skin + red cabbage with the same fabric

(I let it in the bath for one hour)

7.Modifying

8.Final First Piece

It seems that the red cabbage went away without any modifyer!!

Before we start our experimentation we went for a forest trip to cellect some Oak and Almonds.

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My own experience

I liked to experiement with parsley - mint - olive leaves

I choosed to Dye with Animal Fibers : no scouring is needed. Warm water and soap is good enough to clean the fibers to receive mordants.

Then I scaled the fabrics I am going to use

THE MOST IMPORTANT PART is to scale the fabrics when it is dry

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Preparing the Dye bath: STEPS & CHALLENGES

Here I used Silk and Cotton

Step 1

For me I started preparing my dye bath by boiling the olive leaves only to make a trail for the first time

(Juse added water)

I let the fabric 24 hours in the bath

And I did not like the color I get I thought I cen get stronger color !

so...

Something wrong I did in step 1

With my first trail I did not chop the leaves so I felt that the color of the bath could be stronger if I chop the leaves

so...

I choped the parsley, mint and olive leaves and let them boil for 1 hour and let the bath over night

next day I got the colors I like !!

Step 2

Then I started using modifiers to see the changes on the colors so I used 3 essential modifiers :-

1. Sodium Carbonate

2. ALUM

3. Iron Sulfate

4. Lemon

STARTING WITH OLIVE LEAVES

Sound Waves from George Gally (Radarboy) on Vimeo.

MINT

Sound Waves from George Gally (Radarboy) on Vimeo.

PARSLEY

Sound Waves from George Gally (Radarboy) on Vimeo.

and here is the final result for the colors after modify them

Step 3

START DYEING !

1. preparing the path by adding the modifiers

2. let the fabrics in warm path for 1 hour for each color

3. rinse and wash the fabric and let it dry

at the end I decide to add one piece of wool for each swatch..

something wrong I did in step 3

Avoid let your fabric on a wet surface as I did so it did not get the color of the surface !!

Final result (water based inks)

At the end I got 12 Different swatches + 3 Natural Colors

My own experience (Making INK / Pigments)

Inks using Arabic Gum

Inks Using Arabic Gum I mix 2 spoons of Arabic Gum with hot water to get the honey-like base (keep adding water until you achieve the desired consistency, as it depends on the Arabic gum you use). Then, I mix it with my dye bath (olive leaves with iron).

you can do any print you want using your ink !

and this is the final print i did using the pine

Pigments using the dye bath

I added 10% Alum (10% of the dye bath weight) and stirred

-here I used the olive leaves dye bath with Iron-

then added 5% washing soda here I keep adding slowly with stiring till I see the foam as you see in the video

then we filter it so we get the Pigments at the top

I left it for 3 days till I got my pigment

I was lucky to have it without any mold !

Summary of Challenges and Solutions

Problem Faced	Solution Taken	Result
The first dye bath with olive leaves gave a very light color.	Realized I didn’t chop the leaves; so I chopped parsley, mint, and olive leaves for better extraction.	Achieved much stronger and more vibrant colors after boiling and soaking overnight.
Didn’t achieve a strong color in the first boiling.	Let the chopped plants simmer for 1 hour and soaked fabrics overnight.	The dye bath became much richer, and fabric absorbed color better.
Needed to experiment with changing colors after dyeing.	Used different modifiers: Sodium Carbonate, Alum, Iron Sulfate, and Lemon.	Saw clear variations in color tones depending on the modifier used.
Difficulty in managing fabrics and mordants.	Carefully scaled dry fabrics before starting (WOF method) and followed proper mordanting steps.	Ensured consistent results and fabrics that were ready to receive dye.