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4. BioChromes

References & Inspiration

This week I want to focus on exploring the concept of sustainable extraction. In historical context, the forced extraction of labor of enslaved and marginalized individuals in Georgia led to the discovery, utilization, and later erasure of agricultural efforts that promote zero waste practices and self sustainability. The burden of forced extractive labor, being a slave, meant that you had to invent sustainable practices for your own safety and for maximum output.

The state of Georgia’s textile industry during colonial times is usually highlighted by the invention and distribution of the cotton gin in 1793. The cotton gin instigated an industrial boom that required more labor and inspired increased utilization of cotton and cotton derived products such as some textiles.

As the granddaughter of both cotton picking laborers and black farm owners I was drawn to the historical context of dye practices. As a former student of Howard University, I learned in my research courses the importance of having a variety of sources. I decided to start digging at my own doorstep. My mother grew up on the farm started by her great grandfather in the early 1800s. She remembered farm life with her grandmother, a former slave, and I grew up hearing stories about life on the farm. My great grandparents were not only farmers, but owned a brick making and laying company utilizing Georgia red clay found on our land. My mother told me heart warming stories of watching her grandmother and aunts make baskets out of grasses and corn husks, and making her and her cousin’s “play clothes” out of dyed fabrics. My mother’s grandmother was the local “medicine lady” and grew medicinal plants alongside her crops and animals.

During my research of native plants that hold historical significance to diasporic Africans, I discovered the historical usage of the Coneflower and Coreopsis. Upon discovering the medicinal properties of the coneflower and the stability of coreopsis during dyeing I decided to utilize both as both plants represent the ‘chromes of resilience’.

As a mother and educator in my great great grandparent’s hometown, I ache to educate my people on the resilience of themselves. My great great grandparents were slabes and farmers who created businesses that were sustainable enough to eventually send my mother to Howard University to become the first woman to graduate with a dual degree in engineering and architecture. My grandmother became the first woman in my hometown to integrate white schools as a teacher during the civil rights era, without a college education.

The coneflower produces a fugitive dye. A dye that reacts to outside influences, creates change, and eventually fades. The coneflower produces a medicine that when injected reacts to whatever is causing harm to the human body, creates a change, and fades. The experience of being a diasporic African in America mirrors the behavior of the coneflower in many ways. This project focuses on the ways that extractive American culture effects the behavior of individuals and thus the utilization of found agriculture in America. Much like the coneflower, African Americans have been influenced from the beginning of the creation of slavery to the present by influences that create change. The stability of those influenced changes are based on the individuals being influenced. Do those changes create a timeline that leads to new beginnings that continue to evolve? Do the changes create a fixed reaction that alters the course forever without returning to what was? Do the changes create a jolt of difference that are forgotten and fade over time?

As I continue to explore these concepts through the coreopsis I look forward to identifying more deeply with the scientific and cultural experience of the ‘chromes of resilience’.

Books and specific articles

  • Plantation Goods: A Material History of American Slavery by Seth Rockman: This 2024 book includes a focus on how enslaved people created and contributed to the production of goods, including textiles.
  • The Cotton Kingdom: A Traveler's Observations on Cotton and Slavery in the American Slave States by Frederick Law Olmsted: This 1861 book contains detailed observations on the cotton economy in the South, which was the foundation for the textile industry.
  • The Fabric of Control: Slavery in Antebellum Southern Textile Mills : An article published in the Business History Review that directly addresses the role of slavery within Southern textile mills.
  • Stitched from the Soul by Karla McClain: While this book focuses on quilts, it features plates of slave-made coverlets, including one from Georgia, that were used as bed coverings.
  • Plantation textile production from 1750 to 1830
  • Slave Cloth and Clothing Slaves: Craftsmanship, Commerce, and Industry Madelyn Shaw

Tools

  • Class Notes + Vimeo Video
  • See Research List for Historical Context
  • Glass Measuring Cup
  • Plastic stirrir
  • Steel Pans
  • Heating Pad
  • Gas Stove
  • Ferrous Sulfate
  • Steel Measuring Bowls
  • Coneflower Plant
  • Salt

Process and workflow

ScouredLinen

My first step was to scour the linen.

Ingredients & Recipes

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

Ingredients Local to GEORGIA, USA

* 1 gr Oak (acorns, twigs, green fallen leaves)
* 1/4 gr Ferrous Sulfate
* 39 oz Raw Linen Fabric
* .03 oz Sodium Carbonate 
* 1 cup vinegar
* 3 cups water

Take care when sourcing all of the above.

Browns

recipe CONEFLOWER dye on cellulose fibers

* measure
* add
* simmer
* mix
* remove
* strain
* repeat

Documenting experiments

TEST 01 - Raw Linen
Material name Fabric composition Breathability Moisture-wicking abilities Heat retention abilities Stretchability Washing temperatures
Raw Linen Plant fibers - Flax Highly breathable High Mid Low Cool or lukewarm
RESULTS

Below you can see the varying colors based on the flax linen's reactions to

  • Scouring Only
  • Scour + Iron
  • Scour + Iron + Tannin
  • Tannin + Iron
  • Dye Bath + Iron
  • Dye Bath + Tannin + Iron
  • Dye Bath + Scour


RESULTS

Step:1 I began by calculating the weight of the linen. I chose this linen because it is similar to what slaves may have had access to.

Step 2: I prepared a scouring bath using sodium carbonate.

Step 3: Tannin Bath

Step 4: Preparing Coneflower Dye Bath

  • Step 5: Preparing Mordant (Ferrous Sulfate)
  • Linen Air Drying after Scouring
  • Step 7: Linen soaking in Tannin bath
  • Step 6: Removing natural components from tannin bath
  • Step 8: Removing natural components from dye bath
  • All of the extractions
  • Results of 5 Hour Soak
  • Linen after soaking
  • Locally sourced goods

Recycling the dye into pigments, COMING SOON

Ingredients & Recipes

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

Ingredients Local to GEORGIA, USA

* 1 gr Oak (acorns, twigs, green fallen leaves)
* 1/4 gr Ferrous Sulfate
* 39 oz Raw Linen Fabric
* .03 oz Sodium Carbonate 
* 1 cup vinegar
* 3 cups water

pink pigment

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

RESULTS