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4. BioChromes

Research

I discovered Natalie Stopka last year when I was getting into fabric marbling. I love the process of marbling because it's different every time which keeps the process fresh and exciting. Natalie is a dyer from Yonkers, NY. She's a great resource as I haven't found many people who have tried different methods of marbling with natural paints. She shows examples of things like how acrylic colour vs. watercolour on silk breaks down after being washed in a standard washing machine.

1A = watercolour on silk 1B = watercolour after washing 2A= acrylic on silk 2B = acrylic after washing

More useful tips can be found on her blog here: Marbling Resources by Natalie Stopka

Of course Jason Logan is a well documented reference. I watched his documentary this week called "The Colour of Ink". I've known about Jason for a while so this was a perfect excuse to dive deeper into his work. While Jason collects samples from all over the world, it was neat to see what he foraged in Toronto, as it's also where I'm from. Most notably he talked about wild grapes that can sometimes be found along the West Toronto Rail Path. If you are about to get into a dye project I highly recommend watching this to help get you pumped up.

You can watch the film film for free here:

[![THE COLOUR OF INK Trailer](https://img.youtube.com/vi/6Dq7KimW8Xg/0.jpg)](https://youtu.be/6Dq7KimW8Xg)

THE COLOUR OF INK Trailer

weekly assignment

Check out the weekly assignment here or login to your NuEval progress and evaluation page.

about your images..delete the tip!!

  1. Remember to credit/reference all your images to their authors. Open source helps us create change faster together, but we all deserve recognition for what we make, design, think, develop.

  2. remember to resize and optimize all your images. You will run out of space and the more data, the more servers, the more cooling systems and energy wasted :) make a choice at every image :)

This image is optimised in size with resolution 72 and passed through tinypng for final optimisation. Remove tips when you don't need them anymore!

get inspired!

Check out and research alumni pages to betetr understand how to document and get inspired

Add your fav alumni's pages as references

Tools

Process and workflow

describe what you see in this image

Ingredients & Recipes

Prepare this recipe 1 by collecting the ingredients necessary, to be found in the list below:

ingredients
  • xxx gr madder root
  • xxx gr alum
  • xxx gr fabric
  • xxx ml xxx
  • xxx gr xxx

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum."

Blue sky

recipe mallow dye on protein and cellulose fibers
  • measure
  • add
  • simmer
  • mix
  • remove
  • strain
  • repeat

Documenting experiments

example from the documentation of Petra Garaiová FabTextiles Barcelona 2021-22

TEST 01 - SILK
Material name Fabric composition Breathability Moisture-wicking abilities Heat retention abilities Stretchability Washing temperatures
Silk Animal fibers - silkworm insect Highly breathable High Low Low Cool or warm
RESULTS

Two ways of showcasing and comparing results with images below

On the left an image of a sample made by xxx with xxx. The dye is more xxx. On the right, an image of a sample made by xxx with xxx and xxx. Here the dye is more xxx.


RESULTS

Recycling the dye into pigments

Ingredients & Recipes

Prepare this recipe 1 by collecting the ingredients necessary, to be found in the list below:

ingredients
  • xxx gr madder root
  • xxx gr alum
  • xxx gr fabric
  • xxx ml xxx
  • xxx gr xxx

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum."

pink pigment

pigment from left-over dye bath
  • measure
  • add
  • simmer
  • mix
  • remove
  • strain
  • repeat

RESULTS

---

Recipes

  1. recipe: banana indigo ↩↩