4. BioChromes¶
Research¶
Photo: Courtesy of edibledenver.com
"This week, we discuss biochromes. Biochromes that were used are creating dyes from natural sources using natural fibers such as plant (i.e., cotton, linen, hemp, ramie) or animal (i.e., wool or silk). Biochromes are natural pigments produced by living organisms — such as plants, bacteria, algae, and fungi. They are responsible for the colors we see in nature: the green of leaves, the pinks and purples in flowers, or even the iridescent shimmer on butterfly wings and beetles. In fashion and textiles, biochromes are gaining attention as a sustainable alternative to synthetic dyes, which often cause water pollution and use toxic chemicals."
weekly assignment
Check out the weekly assignment here or login to your NuEval progress and evaluation page.
about your images..delete the tip!!
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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.
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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!
References & Inspiration¶
"I am inspired by another professor by the name of Kate Turnbull. Her combination of practice + education + advocacy is a model for how designers can build impact beyond just making garments. Her workshop model (teaching others to dye, sharing techniques) resonates with open-source fashion ideals. She’s a living case study of how heritage craft (dying) and cutting-edge sustainable fashion can meet.Her combination of practice + education + advocacy is a model for how designers can build impact beyond just making garments. Her workshop model (teaching others to dye, sharing techniques) resonates with open-source fashion ideals. She’s a living case study of how heritage craft (dying) and cutting-edge sustainable fashion can meet.."
* Photos by Katie Turnbull from Natural Earth Paint and LinkedIn
Tools¶
Process and workflow¶
My first step was to.....
Follow the process... 1. WOF 2. WASH & SCOUR 3. MORDANT 4. DYE BATH 5. PH 6. RINSE 7. MODIFY
WOF From the image above, the weight of all of the fabric was was 5.9 ounces which is converted to 167 grams.
WOF = (Weight of fiber) x (% of Dye Needed / 100)
= 167g x 0.02 = 3.34 of soda ash
WASH & SCOUR
For this experiment, I only scour the cotton fabric and cotton yarn.
3.34g of soda ash was added to water and it was boil on the stove and simmer for 2 hours.
MORDANT I added the scour fabric into a mordant bath. I used 15% WOF of alum for the mordant. Therefore, 25g of alum was added to water and the scour fabric was added to the bath. This step is used in order to help the dyes penetrate the fabric/yarns. The wool was only 4 grams and all was mordanted in the one pot. The mordant was boil on the stove and simmer for 2 hours.
Ingredients & Recipes¶
DYE BATH
I used avocado (skins and pits) and black bean. Prepare this recipe 1 by collecting the ingredients necessary, to be found in the list below:
Avocado
Both the avocado skins and pits were throughly cleaned and place in the pot with water. The dye bath simmer for over 2 hours and the color looked a little light. I simmer it again for another hour and strained the skins and pit out of the pot. I added all of the fabrics and left it overnight.
Blackbeans
The blackbeans were placed in water and sat for a few hours. Next, I put the beans in a pot and simmer for 2 hours. It had a dark blueish black hue. I strained the blackbeans out and added the fabrics. I let it sit overnight in the dye bath.
Documenting experiments¶
After both dye baths sat overnight, I warm up both baths to simmer for 30 minutes. I let both baths cool and rinse off fabrics with ph neutral soap. The avocado fabric looks a slight salmon pink tone and the blackbean was a purple-grayish tone.
RESULTS¶
Two ways of showcasing and comparing results with images below
On the left an image of a the avocado, with different types of modifiers. The modifiers used was vinegar, alum and sodium bicarbonate. All three modifiers were used for each type of fabric (i.e., cotton fabric, cotton yarn, and wool fibers)
On the right, an image of the blackbeans, with different types of modifiers. The same mordants were used as he avocardo (i.e., vinegar, alum, and sodium bicarbonate). The three types of fabrics were used as well.
Recycling the dye into pigments¶
RESULTS¶
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Recipes¶
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recipe: avocado and black beans ↩