BIOCHROMES

ABOUT YELLOW

The yellow color has very opposite meanings. On one hand it is the sun, the harvest, the gold and the abundance. On the other hand, it is a symbol of dryness, of bitterness, because of its relationship with the color of bile and used as an exclusion mark.
Adam has yellow sweats in seeing the angel of death. In the Arab culture, a yellow smile refers to a smile full of envy. It is related to butter and honey but also with cowardice and betrayal.

In India it is related to marriage. The hands of the bride and groom are covered with turmeric pigment. It is also used to paint the invitations and there is a lot of yellow food during the days of the ceremony. That gives them health, wealth ...

In China, yellow is the color of the empress and is a symbol of glory, progress and evolution.

Curcuma is still used in many Polynesias islands. For some of its towns, it represents the main source of wealth. The Tipokia people, prepare it only in sacred places and the mass obtained, is not only used to dye garments, it is also believed that covering their skin with it, they attract the favor of the Gods.
To prepare this paste, they grate the root. Then they boil it with water for about two hours. When the water has been reduced, they are wrapped in cake form inside tree bark. To dye the clothes, boil the garment with this cake.

In the Fiji, the lau ethnic group has a ritual closely linked to this color. The daughters of the nobles at 16 are forbidden to see the sun for a while. They are held in houses smeared with a mixture of turmeric and oil so that your skin is dazzling. It is believed that if it is seen, its brightness will disappear.

Orpiment yellow was widely used in Ancient Egypt, also in Greece and Inia. It was a derivative of Sinei arsenic.It was later replaced by cadmium yellow after it was banned in the west.

The yellow of Naples was well known in Mesopotamia in 2500 BC. It was manufactured by calcining lead and antimenium oxide. It was replaced in Ancient Greece by the lead stenate, in the middle ages it was back in fashion.

The yellow mummy is controversial. To produce it, the dried meat and flax bandages of the mummies of the Egyptian necropolis are ground. It began to be used as medicine in S XIII. In the Renaissance painters began to use it in their creations. It will be used until SXIX.

Yellow India arrives in the Netherlands in the S.XV. The secret of its formula, gave rise to many fantasies, was said to be created with urine of a kind of snake among many other stories. The truth is that it is manufactured with magnesium salt and euxantic acid extracted from the urine or manure of Bengali cows fed on mango leaves.
It is a solid and powerful color. It was later replaced by the yellow extracted from the gualda and turmeric. In the SXX it was prohibited since to achieve it, it was necessary to make the cows thirsty.

Saffron yellow is not toxic and has a very powerful tone. Is create with the stigmas from a flower, the upper part of the pistil. Is very laborious pick up them. It was used in ancient Egypt to dye the linen with which the mummy were covere and also to paint the official papers. Its use was extended until the discovery of the New world and synthetic dyes.

ABOUT PH

Ph affects to our colors results. Different ph of the product will interacting with the dye creating a variable range of colors. To make more acid we use vinegar or citruses and soda make it more alkaline. To see how the PH affects to color we did an experiment with cabbage dye. We fill 7 pipette with cabbage dye and we place them in a row. We keep the middle one raw, and we add on each pipette on the right side of it soda disolved on water. We add from the middle to the right side, more solution of soda on water. On left pipettes we add vinegar. Thats how we get from more acid to more alkaline.

PIGMENTS

Pigments are insoluble color particles. They operate by suspension working on the surface of the object we want to color. Thats why we need a binder fix them on the support. They can come from Organic resources, plants and animals Inorganic resources, minerals and sand The blinders can be, egg withe or yolk, arabica gum, linseed oil, honey but it was used also pee, blood or faeces in the old age.

The first synthesized pigment, is created in 3000 BC in ancient Egypt. It was a mix of quartz, copper and natron that becomes the famous Egyptian Blue after be cooked at 850 degrees. Alquimia is a practice that precedes modern chemistry. Whose main objective, was to explore how materials interacted seeking to turn them into gold thought experiments alquimista have been done, many pigments have been discovered. The pigment extraction are, pulverization, levigation/purification, rust or calcination.
The process to create your pigment is, - Separa- Separate the egg white from the yolk. With a needle, remove the membrane that covers the yolk. - We add to the yolk an equal volume of water than it has. We add a drop of vinegar as a preservative - Crush the raw material. In the case of the manufacture of black smoke, the process will be another. we will burn the surface of a ceramic plate with a candle and we will scratch the burned with a spatula.
- Sift the powder. It is recommended to use a sieve between 75 and 100 microns - Add the binder. If egg white is used, add to the powder, the same amount of egg yolk that it has. If gum arabic is used, we will add a drop or two of waterand mixed. When the powder is like a paste, we will add the gum arabic.
- Paint and have fun!! You can use the pigment in many different supports such as wood, fabric, paper ...
Add water to obtain different values of the same color To preserve the paint, you can apply a protective coating called shellac. The recepie is coming soon!

Azulita Blue

Brown Sand from Montserrat mountain

Yellow Saffron

Black Smoke

Some degradeé

Process

DYES

It’s composed by soluble particles on water they gives the color to the textiles through a colored bath. This particle is smaller than the pigment ones and becomes one with the fiber particles after being applied the mordant and the color bath. We can extract this particles from many different organic resources as plats, fruits, vegetables or animals.

Mordant is the name of the process we do to the fabrics to prepare them for be dyed. This process it serves to sites the dyes on them. Mordant and dyes forms a coordination complex which then merge with the fabric particles. The term mordant comes from the Latin mordere, "to bite". In the past, it was thought that a mordant helped the dye bite onto the fiber so that it would hold fast during washing. The most commune mordants are copper, alum, iron and cream tartar. We gonna use alum and iron because copper is very contaminating.

1. Wash the fibers.
   Animal fibers, let soak all night and if they are really dirty clean it with a neutral soap. Vegetable fibers, let soak all night with baking soda.

2. Simmer with the mordent during 1hour

Animal fabrics, we can use iron, alum and cream of tartar. The percentages will be, Iron, 3% of the weight of the fabric Alum, 15% of the weight of the fabric Cream of tartar, 15% of the weight of the fabric

Vegetal fibers, we not gonna use cream tartar because is too aggressive and can spoil it. The percentages will be, Iron, 3% of the weight of the fabric Alum 15% of the weight of the fabric

Each resource we gonna use to prepare the dye have different processes. To be able to have as many dyes we can, each student has prepared one or two of them. You can find the recipes and directions on their sites

Mushrooms

FER FOTOS PANTONE HINAKO

To be able to have as more uniform color we can, we gonna use dry mushrooms. On the Fabricademy exercise we used shiitake. We gonna need 1 gram of shiitake for each gram of fabric.

The steps to follow to have your fabric dyed with mushrooms are,

Soak in distilled water for 1 hour minimum, although it is advisable do it overnight Short in a little pieces Simmer 1 hour at 18C Check the ph. Polypores needs up 9 ph Let cool Strain with a piece of fabric. If we want a stronger color, we can leave the fabric with the mushrooms inside we will do the dye bath. Simmer with the mordanted fabric 1 hour Let cool overnight Rinse the fabric

Annatto

FER FOTOS PANTONE HINAKO

We have two ways to prepare the annatto dye bath depending on if we want stronger color, having the maximum of color from the seeds or more softer.

The steps we need to do to have a stronger color are,

Simmer the seeds about one hour with one or two teaspoons of washing soda Stain and let the liquid cold Let the fibers on the liquid until they have the color we want on them

The steps to follow for a softer color are,

Simmer the seeds one hour Put the fibers inside and simmer one hour more. We can remove or leave the seeds. If we keep them, the color will be stronger than if we leave it.

Modifiers

Once we have done the dye we can continue playing with the fabrics to be able to get many deferents variation of the color. The modifiers work changing the ph. They are, Acid, vinegar, lemon Alkaline, soda Copper Iron

Color chart

To saw the chart on your own time and with more resolution, check here

Thanks Betiana to suggest me to use Google slides and improve the presentation!

INKS

Inks are composed by,

The two basics are, Coloring, is the primary materia gives the color, we can extract color from them. They come from different sources as vegetables, plants, minerals or animals Vehicle, liquid in with the pigment is suspended. Depends the use of the ink we gonna chose, water for a simple ink, ethanol for marker ink and oil or gel for printing ink.

Depends the complexity of the ink and the use we want to give it can have also, Binder, Keeps pigment particles together and evenly distributed on the vehicle. The most used in those days is arabic gum, but the formerly used were: egg white, sage oil, honey Preservative, We chose different ways to preserve the pigment depending on the origin of it and the binder chosen. Can be salt essential oils, aromatic herbs. Also we can deshidrates the solution. Other additives, they are used to intensify, stabilize, modify or thickening the ink. Can be vinegar, alum, cream tartar or ammonia.

RECIPES

HIBISCUS
200 ml Ethanol
75g dry hibiscus

BLUEBERRY
200 ml Ethanol
70 g Blueberrys

PLUM SKIN
200 ml Ethanol
The skin of 3 plums

RED CABBAGE
200 ML Ethanol
150 g Red cabbage

STEP BY STEP

• Pour the ethanol into a glass pot.
• Dip the coloring matter in it
• Let it rest for a few days.
• Strain the solution to separate the hibiscus from the liquid.
• Ready to use!
• Remember you can use lemon or vinegar to change the ph of the solution and create new colours!

BEETROOT
3 Medium size beetroot
700 ml wather
1 Teaspoon Vinegar
1 Teaspoon salt

STEP BY STEP

• Cut the beets in half and put them in the mixer with the water.
• Crush them into pieces of about 5 mm
• Put the mixture in a pot and simmer for about 45 minutes.
• Increase the power of the fire and reduce the solution.
• Strain the mixture to separate the coloring matter from the liquid.
• Add the teaspoon of vinegar and salt to the liquid.
• Ready to use!

BACTERIA DYE

Bacteria have to be manipulated on a laboratory. A different type of laboratory is mandatory according to the degree of danger from the bacteria. We gonna use Serratia Marcences to dye. This bacteria have to be use in a P.L 2 laboratory but the one we used it was genetically modified that’s why it was not dangerous and can be used in a P.L1, the level of laboratory we have in Fabricademy.

The basics to have a P.L1 laboratory are, Air extractor Pressure cooker Window, close well Incubator

Process

The process consists of cultivating the bacteria on the fabric and help it grow there. To do it we gonna give it food. It depends how we gonna use the bacteria, we gonna give different kind of food. Nutrient agar-agar is used to feed the bacteria on a solid material as a regular petri dish. The recipe to prepare this bacteria food is to feel in 4 petri dish, 200 ml distilled water 4 g nutrient agar 1 ml glycerine

LB Broth is a nutritionally rich medium allows the bacteria grows in a liquid. Thats the one we will use to dye the fabric. The food recipe is, 250 ml distilled water 6.75 g L.B Broth 1 ml glycerine

To dye with bacteria, we don’t need to mordent the fabric. So we can proceed to fold the silk and sew it following the Japanese technique Shibory directly. To sew the silk we gonna use synthetic treat becase its easier to keep it not contaminated. Once we have done that step, we gonna fill the folded silk on a sterilized petri dish and we gonna put on a special plastic bag can resist high temperatures. To sterilized we gonna put the bag inside the pressure cooker 15 minutes. After sterilized the fabric we gonna do the same with the pot were the food is. To let cool after sterilizing, we put it in another pot with cold water. The next step is create a sterilized environment. We clean the table with alcohol and also our hands and forearms ( we gonna do it often to keep them clean). On the table we draw a circle with the alcohol and we put on the middle the camping gas. We switch on the gas creating a convection movement. Convection movement is caused within a fluid by the tendency of hotter and therefore less dense material to rise, and colder, denser material to sink under the influence of gravity, which consequently results in transfer of heat. Moving the air in that way, we gonna prevent the elements can contaminated the bacteria fall on the tools we are using. Thats why our movements have to be really close to the flame. Once the clean environment is created, we gonna cultivate the bacteria on the fabric. The first step is open the pot with the food, always with the flame next to the bottle overture and tip out a bit of it on the petri dish with the fabric. Any time we open the petri dishes has to be fast and just the bit we need to work on it. Also we can not talk in that moment. After, we gonna burn the inoculation loop and we gonna take some bacteria from the petri dish it was cultivated and we gonna put into the petri dish with the fabric. After that we gonna close the petri dish with the special paper and we gonna pu into the incubator for two days more or less on 23/24 degrees. When a few days have passed, we will proceed to kill the bacteria. We insert the petri dish into the special boiling bag and put it 15 minutes into the pressure cooker. After this process, we can open the petri dish, and after cleaning the fabric with water, finally enjoy our design!

INSPIRATION

LINKS AND BIO

BOOKS

LINKS
Laura Daza and Colour Alquimia