Recipes, Experiments, Results¶

Recipies, Experiments, Results¶

Phase One¶

The goal of phase one is to achieve five natural colours, which can be used either on their own, or through the help of the Colour Immersion Apparatus to answer the questionnaire.

If you are new to biochromes, then I invite you to take a look at week four of fabricademy to understand the basics.

The colours which I will be working on for this phase are

red yellow blue green brown

For the following experiment, the fabrics have been scoured, tannin and mordanted in the exact same way. I have used lightweight cotton fabric, which have been cut to 30cm x 40cm, weighing 16g or 30cm x 20cm, weighing 8gr. It is also important to note that I have useed dyes at 200% WOF at least.

All fabrics have been scoured using soda ash and a drop of scour soap. While rinsing the fabrics after scouring, before submerging in the tannin bath, I have used a dash of vinegar in the water. Soda ash is highly alkaline and if there is even the slightest alkaline residue left on the fabric, it will mix with the tannin and turn slightly green. Using a a small amount of vinegar with water to rinse the fabrics avoids the formation of greenish hues.

Madder Roots¶

The first experiment I did to achieve "red" for my swatchbook/ research was with madder roots. For this experiment I have used 32gr of madder roots, that had been used once previously. Madder roots carry a lot of pigment and you can use the same roots many times to extract colour. Madder roots are sensitive to heat, usually advised not to raise the temperatures above 82C. For the shade of red that I wanted to achieve, I raised the temperatures to boiling point, to activate the brown pigments too. After reaching boiling point, I then simmered it for an hour. I have extracted colour from the same roots 5 times.

I have made four variations of madder red

Madder Lake Pigment¶

To make lake pigment with leftover dye bath I have used:

 500 ml madder root dye
 10  gr aluminium sulfate
 5   gr soda ash
 200 ml hot water

Raise the temperature of the dye bath to about 70C. Add the alum and mix so it fully dissolves. In a separate jar, mix the 200ml hot water and 5gr soda ash. Slowly add the soda ash to the dye bath. It will create foam, so best to add slowly and mix in between. Using a coffee filter, you can filter the sediment, which will dry into a lake pigment.

Pomegranate Skins¶


_{two sahed of pomegranate}

The first experiment I did for "yellow" was with 32g of freshly dried skins (year 2025-2026). I simmered the skins for over 2 hours, then immersed the pre- treated fabrics in the hot dye bath and let it cool without heating it up again.

For the second experiment I made a dye bath using 64gr of pomegranat skins that had been dried last winter (2024-2025). In this experiment I simmered the skins for over two hours. I let the dye bath cool, added the pre-treated fabric, raised the temperature to around 80C and kept it there for about 2hr.

Third experiment was done with 128gr of pomegranate skins. The rinds were simmered for over 2 hours. The dye bath steeped overnight. 16gr of fabric was used in this experiment.

Fourth experiment was done using 6gr of ground pomegranate rind. I allowed the rinds to sit in warm water for about an hour. After that I simmered the dye for about 2 hours. The dye bath was warm when I added a piece of fabric, weighing 8gr. The temperature was raised slowly.

Indigo Blues¶

When it comes to blues, indigos are of course the depest and most poetic. For the four blue hues I used ndigo from Tamil Nadu region in India and made a fructose dye vat, as well as a chemical dye vat, with the following proportions.

Fructose Dye Vat

 10 L of hot water (50C)
 10 gr Indigo
 30 gr Fructose
 20 gr Calcium hydroxide

Chemical Dye Vat

 15 L of hot water (45-47C)
 10 gr Indigo
 20 gr Soda Ash
 15 gr Sodium Dithionite

While both dye vats have similar fermentation process, I observed that the chemical dye bath yielded deeper and more even shades, than the fructose dye vat.

Greens¶

To achieve "greens" I decided to do "yellow" hues overdyed with indigo blues or modified with ferrous sulfate. I used margiold, red onion skins, pomegranate, pomegranate and marigold as you can see in the colour map below.


_{From yellows to greens}

Browns¶

Swatch Books¶

Fibre	Tannin	Mordant	Dye
cotton	gallnut 2.5 gr	aluminium acetate 1 gr	madder roots 32 gr
cotton	gallnut 2.5 gr	aluminium acetate 1 gr	pomegranate skins 32 gr
cotton	gallnut 2.5 gr	none	indigo 10 gr
cotton	gallnut 2.5 gr	aluminium acetate 1 gr	pomegranate skins 32 gr, marigold 5 gr & indigo
cotton	gallnut 2.5 gr	aluminium acetate 1 gr	walnut hulls 32 gr, madder roots 16 gr

Fibre	Tannin	Mordant	Dye
cotton	gallnut 2.5 gr	aluminium acetate 1 gr	madder roots 32 gr
cotton	gallnut 2.5 gr	aluminium acetate 1 gr	pomegranate skins 32 gr
cotton	gallnut 2.5 gr	none	indigo 10 gr
cotton	gallnut 2.5 gr	aluminium acetate 1 gr	onion skins 64 gr & ⅛ tsp ferrous sulfate
cotton	gallnut 2.5 gr	aluminium acetate 1 gr	onion skins 64 gr & walnut hulls 32 gr (leftover)

Fibre	Tannin	Mordant	Dye
cotton	gallnut 2.5 gr	aluminium acetate 1 gr	madder roots 32 gr
cotton	gallnut 2.5 gr	aluminium acetate 1 gr	pomegranate skins 32 gr
cotton	gallnut 2.5 gr	none	indigo 10 gr
cotton	gallnut 2.5 gr	aluminium acetate 1 gr	pomegranate skins 32 gr, marigold 5 gr & indigo
cotton	gallnut 2.5 gr	aluminium acetate 1 gr	walnut hulls 32 gr, madder roots 16 gr

Fibre	Tannin	Mordant	Dye
cotton	gallnut 2.5 gr	aluminium acetate 1 gr	madder roots 16 gr
cotton	gallnut 2.5 gr	aluminium acetate 1 gr	pomegranate skins 64 gr
cotton	gallnut 2.5 gr	none	indigo 10 gr
cotton	gallnut 2.5 gr	aluminium acetate 1 gr	onion skins 64 gr & indigo 10 gr
cotton	gallnut 2.5 gr	aluminium acetate 1 gr	onion skins 64 gr & ferrous sulfate