4. BIOCHROMES¶

Research¶

After a trip to Oaxaca a few years ago I have been fascinated by Cochineal and its ability to produce very vibrant shades of red. they gave us a demonstration where they would place some cochineal in our hands and depending on the ph value of our skin it would change from a deep purple to and orange-ish red color.

I have always wanted to experiment with dyeing using this creature.

What I like about dying with natural sources is your control over the final color / pigment.

References & Inspiration¶

photo by Maiwa https://naturaldyes.ca/maiwa-guide-to-natural-dyes-pdf

Tools¶

For dying the tools are as listed:

Large dye pots

Natural Dye sources: Cabbage, Beans, logwood, Onions, carob, etc..

Mordants: Iron Salt, Alum, Baking Soda, Vinegar, Tannins

15cm X 15cm Fabric Sauares: Linen, Cotton , Viscose, Silk

Recycling the dye into pigments¶

I was not personally involved in the recycling dye into pigments this week. but the process is simple.

With what ever leftover dye bath you have, you add potassium aluminum sulfate (PAS or alum), baking soda (sodium carbonate) and alow to bubble and fizz.

After you wait for the pigment to settle towards the bottom, you then strain the liquid (with coffee filter / cheese cloth) and and bake / dry the remaining sediment until it forms a dry powder

Turning Dyes into Inks / Paints¶

Inks and paints can also be made from a recyled dye path and the process is quite straightforward.

Preheat your leftover dye, and add a gum or binder agent. Most commonly Arabic Gum.

Do this in small stages. While there is a generally accepted ratio, I feel as though it is better to add small bits at a time to get the desired thickness/ consistency depending on use case or binder choice.

Ingredients & Recipes¶

We as a class made a variety of different dyes mixing different mordant ratios and different mordant types (iron vs alum)

The recipes are within the labels in my pictures, however we as a class are planning on creating a codified "pantone" log of all of the different recipes, so i will add that in its entirety once compiled.

RESULTS¶

Here are the results from the different mixtures of dye sources, different mordants, and ph changing acids and bases.

photo by Neyla Coronel

After the intial dye trials, I decided to make a dye as black as i could, by mixing leftover dye bath solutions.

While trying to achieve a black dye I combined Cabbage, Onion, Logwood, Carob, lots of iron salt, and a little dish soap to create a combination dye.

These small test strips were the result. i feel with over dyeing i could achieve a nice rich black color.

I plan to progress this research to make a black dye from natural sources that is rich in color and has strong color fastness.

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