4. BioChromes¶
References & Inspiration¶
Research¶
I have a little experience with natural dying. Last spring I did some natural dying at home and I did some research (a little messy) (see here) to understand the preparation process.
Tools¶
- Large pots
- Spoons
- Gloves
- Bowls, Glass Jars, Containers
- Steamer
- String
- Coffee Filters
Ingredients¶
- Soda Ash (i.e., sodium carbonate)
- Alum (i.e., Aluminum acetate)
- Cream of Tartare
- Myrobalam powder (or other tannin)
- Onion skins
- Red cabbage
- Bamboo Leaves
- Iron Sulfate Liquid
- Wheat flour
- Campeche Powder
Process and workflow¶
WoF¶
Before doing anything, you must weigh the fabric dry. This will inform the amount of all the other ingredients that you use. We mordanted everything together at our FabLab so this list includes things that both Jeanne and I used.
| Fabric | WoF |
|---|---|
| Thin Cotton Fabric (2m piece) | 183g |
| Cotton Fabric Scrap | 114g |
| Cotton Ball | 23g |
| Cotton canvas | 68g |
| Wool yarn Medium | 100g |
| Wool yarn Thick | 73g |
| Wool yarn Thin | 31 g |
| Total Cotton | 388g |
| Total Wool | 204g |
Mordanting / Prepping the Fabric¶
This time around, we did a little bit different of a preparation process than the process I've previously done.
Scouring + Mordanting Together (Process #1, Fabricademy Fall 2024)¶
This time we scoured and mordanted all at once, which was huge in terms of saving time.
Cotton / Cellulose Fibers¶
| Ingredient | % of WoF | Grams |
|---|---|---|
| Fabric | 100% | 388g |
| Alum | 20% | 77.6g |
| Water | 2,000% | 7,760g (7.76L) |
| White Vinegar | 200% | 776g (0.776L) |
| Sodium Carbonate | 10% | 38.8g |
Process¶
Note some of these amounts differ from the amounts above due to human error and rounding. For next time refer to amounts above. This goes for all the processes below.
- We started by washing the cotton in neutral soap and rinsing. We didn't wash the cotton ball because it seemed delicate.
- Add 77g alum to pot
- Add 600g hot water to pot
- Stir & Dissolve alum
- Add 40g sodium carbonate to the pot
- Add 787g white vinegar
- Add 7L cold water (= total of 7.6L cold + hot)
- Add wet cotton
- Put on low heat, bring to boil
- Take off heat (after 1h 10min)
- Leave in bath overnight
Wool Fibers¶
| Ingredient | % of WoF | Grams |
|---|---|---|
| Fabric | 100% | 204 |
| Alum | 15% | 30.6g |
| Water | 2,000% | 4,080g (4.08L) |
| Cream of Tartar | 6% | 12.24g |
Process¶
- Add 30g alum to pot
- Add 13g cream of tartar to alum
- Add 600g hot water
- Stir & Dissolve
- Add 3.5L cold water (= total of 4.1L cold + hot)
- Soak wool in water for 20-30 min (next time will do this earlier)
- Add wet wool to bath
- Put on heat on low (2), after 15 min increase to 4, then after 15 min increase to 5 (We were worried about increasing the heat of the wool too quickly)
- Take off heat (after 1.5 - 2 hours. We did longer due to the slower increase in heat)
- Leave in bath overnight
More Detail on Scouring, Tannin, Mordanting¶
Why Scour?¶
" “Scouring” is the textile term for cleaning fibers and removing sediment prior to mordanting and dyeing, and does not refer to washing fabrics in a washing machine. If the fiber is not clean, the mordant and dyes will not adhere well to the fiber. Fabrics sold as gray goods or “greige” require a thorough scour. Fibers need scouring if they feel greasy (ex. wool fleece), are smelly or are visibly dirty. Even products that are sold as Ready for Dyeing (RFD) or Prepared for Dyeing (PFD) often need a light scour prior to use. The scouring methods for animal fibers, cellulose fibers and silk are all different." Source: BotanicalColors.com
Scouring is typically done with Sodium Carbonate (i.e., soda ash) (NOT sodium bicarbonate) before mordanting
Why Tannin?¶
"Prior to alum, cellulose fabrics require a tannin bath. Tannin gives cellulose fibers the ability to more readily accept a mordant. If your goal is to dye light colors choose a light or clear tannin like oak galls, gallo or myrobalan. If you’re wanting to achieve dark colors choose a dark tannin like tannic acid, cutch, walnut or chestnut. Tannins can be used as a tool in building colors." Source: FarmandFolk.com
Why Mordant?¶
"Mordanting is the most important process of preparing fibers to accept color. A mordant is a mineral salt that fixes with the fiber allowing natural dyes to bond to it. For us it is the most important step to improve light and washfastness. Using a mordant helps to ensure the most durable and long-lasting colors." Source: BotanicalColors.com
My Thoughts on Process¶
Previously I've read that you should scour, tannin and mordant seperately (potentially with a chalk bran bath) after to best prep fabric to absorb and hold color. Since that's not the process we did this time I won't include here, but will link my previous research doc (a WIP!) here
Based on my reading, I think it makes more sense to do each step seperately. However, I'm more likely to natural dye for small projects if its more accessible like the process above. I would love to in the future do a comparison of the two processes and see how the fabrics absorb the dyes and how they hold the dyes over time.
Dying with Yellow Onion Skins (on Wool & Cotton)¶
Ingredients & Recipes¶
- Measure onion skins, will use 150g of skins for every 100g of fibers
- In my case, I was going to dye 27g of fibers (18g wool, 9g wool), and thus needed 40g of onion skins. This is a lot! We had 38g of onion skins so Ised that.
- In a pot, boil the onion skins in water for one hour (For the amount of water I estimated the amount needed to cover the fabric)
- Let cool a little bit so its easier to work with
- Filter the bath and submerge the mordanted fibers
- Heat the bath for one hour before removing the textiles and rinsing
Notes: I overestimated the amount of water I needed. However, this didn't water the dye down too much as it was still very strong in color!
This recipe used was from the book "Teintures végétales" by Aurélia Wolff
Note I also used the yellow onion skins for ecoprinting and pigment. See below.
Results¶
Dye after rinsing:
Dye after weekend:
(Top Onion EcoPrint, more below)
(Bottom Onion Dye on Cotton)
EcoPrinting (on Cotton)¶
Ingredients & Recipes¶
I experimented with:
- Red Cabbage (sliced in disc like photo below)
- Bamboo Leaves
- Yellow Onion Skins
- Mystery plant
Steps:
- In half the (dry) fabric, I put the plant or vegetable
- Fold over so the ingredient is touching both sides evenly
- Roll / fold into a tight package
- Tie with string
- Place in steamer for 30 minutes
- Remove, unfold, hang to dry
Results¶
Dying with Campeche Powder (5 ways)¶
Ingredients & Recipes¶
Ingredients:¶
- Campeche Powder
- Myrobalam powder
- Cream of Tartare
- Iron Sulfate Liquid
- Flour
Prepare Dye:¶
- Note fiber amount to dye: I wanted to dye about 183g of fiber
- I measured 23g of powder (12.5% WoF) (The recipe I saw was for chips & bark at 100% WoF to bark or extract at 5% WoF, another recipe I saw said wood chips at 10%-15% WoF, but I didn't see any recipes for powder so I estimated at 12.5%)
- Added 4.5L (I added 1.5L hot, 3L cold) warm water
- Let macerate over night
Note: "For the dye to succeed, the water in the bath must be rather hard and thus basic. The results will be more unpredictable with a acidic water so try to control the pH. If the pH is less than 7, add a spoonful of sodium bicarbonate" -From Teintures Vegetales by Aurelia Wolff, translated by me
Prepare Iron Sulfate:¶
- Made Iron Paste with 14g iron sulfate liquid (pre-prepared by someone else) + 6g wheat flour
- I made polka dots on the cotton fabric with the paste and then "cleaned" the container by wiping up the excess with the the wool yarn
- Left to sit for 1.5 hours
- Rinse well
Prepare the tannin bath¶
- Put Myrobalam (12.5%) into a pot (Note Aurelia Wolff recommended 30%, Wild Colours recommended 15%-20%, but I only had 9g so I used all of it at 12.5%)
- Added 4L water (estimated enough to cover fabric)
- Bring to boil, I heated for 2 hours, but this is not necessary as I misunderstood the instructions (soak fibers for 2 hours, not heat for 2 hours)
Testing! Create 5 baths¶
- No Modifications: Nothing, just water, or air in my case since the fibers were already wet
- Cream of Tartar Only: Dissolve 15% cream of tartare in hot water, add fibers
- Tannin: Pour liquid from tannin bath over fibers (Myrobalam for this test, can use gallnut)
- Cream of Tartar + Tannin: Dissolve 15% cream of tartar in a small amount of hot water, add the liquid from the tannin bath enough to cover fibers
- Iron + Tannin: Take the well-rinsed fibers after the iron paste above, cover in liquid from tannin
Note: Don't add (3) & (5) together because the iron will come out into the bath affecting the other fibers
- Leave in baths for 1 hour
- Rinse well after
Reheat Campeche Dye¶
- Put on heat (up to 80-90 degrees) for 1 hour
Add Dyes¶
- After taking the dye off the heat and rinsing all the fibers well, keep them in seperate containers, even after rinsing, the modifiers will affect the dye
- Pour dye over the fibers to cover
- Move fibers around from time to time to make sure that it is evenly dyed (I did not do this as you will see)
- Leave for 1 hour (Apparently it is not good for the color to leave fibers in the campeche dye for too long, but I did not test this)
Note: I tweaked the recipe by Aurelia Wolff quite a lot. For the iron sulfate she recommends washing in an ash wash after, but I didn't have it. For the tannin its recommended to do this during the mordant
Note: Because I did tests my measurements are not accurate. I created a bath with the correct amount of ingredient and then estimated the amount of water, but as I then poured water in different containers, the amount of product added to each fiber was determined by how much liquid the container could fit and thus there was a lot of product left behind in the main pot
Results¶
The results changed a lot!
The colors from the dye bath:
The colors after rinsing the dye:
The colors after drying over the weekend:
Pigment¶
I followed the instructions from Cecilia's video to make the pigment
Ingredients:¶
- approximately 150L dye
- 10g alum
- 5g sodium carbonate
Steps:¶
- Put dye in a container (2x as tall as the level of the dye as it will fizz)
- Dissolve 10g alum in a little hot water
- Add to dye
- Dissolve 5g of sodium carbonate in a little hot water
- Add to dye/alum mixture
- This will fizz and seperate, let sit for at least 1 hour to seperate
- Pour over filter, the first experiment I did I used a dish towel, then later coffee filters
- Dry
- Grind well (I did not do this well enough)
Make Tempera paint:¶
- Seperate egg yolk
- Take 1 tsp water, 1 tsp pigment, 1 tsp egg yolk, mix well
- This is the paint
Results¶
