Month: October 2020
Further experimentation with natural dyes
Being really satisfied from the results that I got from my first experience with natural dyes I wanted to experiment and explore more techniques and materials. Being also inspired from the brands Food Textile and Food Paper that use food waste in order to colour clothes and other items, I decided to collect the food waste of my household for a week and then use them to see what colours will produce. Therefore, I used avocado and carrot skins, beetroot, spinach, red cabbage and dried roses . I placed each one of it in a pot and let the boil until their colour be released.From this process I released that each material reacts different with heat and has a unique boiling point that has to reach in order to absolve the color. I got a bright blue colour from the cabbage, green from the spinach, pink from the avocado, dark yellow from the carrot skins and dark green from the dried roses. Then, I also experiment with fabrics and time in order to see the different results that I will get. I observed that cotton absorbs better the colours than synthetic fabrics and the colour on it is more visible and bold. Also, I released that the more time I leave the fabric in the colour , the more intense is the colour on it. Being really excited and happy from the process on my second experimentation with natural dyes I am planing to work further on this area in order to conclude on a topic related for my FMP.
Natural dying
Based on a report on WGSN naturally derived colour will be a key part of future responsible product strategies.Food waste is a growing source of natural colour that has commercial potential. Experimenting with food waste in order to dye fabrics is a process that I really enjoyed. I liked the freedom that I had combing materials in order to create a color combinations and different colour shades. Before starting my experimentation I researched which fruits, vegetables and herbs produce color when they are boiled and I used red cabbage, onion, berries, pomegranate, spinach and beetroots on my first experience on natural dying. I placed different materials on small pieces of fabrics and I folded and tied them with string . After this, I placed in pot and let them boiled for ten minutes. While I was unfolding the fabrics a feeling of surprise and excitement of how the fabrics will look overwhelmed me. I am really satisfied of the colour combinations that derived from this “magical” process and am looking to forward to experiment more using more food waste and house hold materials to create natural colours.
Natural dying
Back to Uk
Coming back to Uk after 6 months that I stayed in Greece with my family due to the pandemic outbreak I cannot lie that was a hard but at the same exciting decision for me. Moving to a new house and online university were the primary issues I had to face since I came back. Online lectures, meetings and workshop is the new dimension that all universities had take due to Covid 19. Adjusting to this new reality was something easy for me, however I cannot lie that the physical interaction with the tutors and classmates is something that I missed a lot the past months. During the summer I worked on my photography skills, I dedicated my time on taking different pictures of the nature as I knew that I wanted to incorporate the theme of nature on my final year project. After a lot of researcher and thinking I decided that I wanted to work with colours and approach this topic from different perspectives. Colour forecasting, colour associations, colours in nature and colour psychology are the main areas that I want to look at. I am going to start my research reading books about the colour theory and reports on WGSN and after this I am hoping to start my experimentation dying fabrics with natural dyes, remaking famous painting with different colour schemes and creating questionnaires about colour associations. I am really excited about the topic thatI choose to work on and I am looking forward to start my experimentation and discover the ideas that will be borned from it
