EXPERIMENTING WITH BIOMATERIALS AND NATURAL DYE
Sustainability is the future where it enhances our standard of living, protects the environment and natural resources for future generations. I experimented with different techniques to apply sustainability and environmentally friendly procedures in the fashion and design industry. I firstly intensively researched biomaterials and managed to grow and create my own product, following a recipe online. I used this material to create an object that can be utilised everyday, substituting plastic and other ecologically harmful materials. I also experimented with the natural dye process, finding new solutions to reduce extensive water contamination from synthetic dyes.
NATURAL DYE
From the farmers market, I selected different types of produce in order to create a variety of dye colors. I chose to use purple carrots and lavender because it generates different toned colors that have the ability to become lighter and darker using mordants. On the website titled The Urban Dyers Almanac, it portrayed the image of what the fabric will look like after being dyed with the produce, where purple carrots created a gray purple tone and a light yellow wheat color for lavender.
The process of natural dye interfaces with water in a better way than synthetic dye as it is biodegradable and non-toxic, since there is no applied manufacturing process. These materials do not pollute the environment after use as there are no carcinogenic elements unlike synthetic dyes. Applied to the fashion industry as a whole, it is a better alternative as the majority of water is consumed in the dyeing phase during garment production. An article by Mckinsey & Company discovered that textile dyeing and treatment are responsible for 25% of industrial water contamination. This is because wastewater disposal is usually uncontrolled and not monitored, encouraging factories to dump chemical-filled waste into nearby water sources. Natural dyes are harvested where I believe that it is not scalable to the industry as the availability of products varies during different seasons and locations, making it exceptionally difficult to mass produce. I enjoyed this sustainable approach as it has a much lower environmental impact unlike other approaches to garment coloring.
After natural dyeing 100% cotton fabric sheets, the results are not what I have anticipated as they came out slightly different than the recipe website suggested. For lavender, the dye itself made the fabric a light color with undertones of yellow, whereas baking soda made it a darker yellow and vinegar turned it slightly purple. During the process of purple carrots, similar effects occurred. Overall, the results are not exactly what I hypothesised as natural dyes are unpredictable. The end color depends on the duration of boiling and how much mordants are used, where I may have made small mistakes.
BIOMATERIAL
In this project, students were assigned to find inspirations and recipes from the Materiom Website (https://materiom.org/search) to grow their own biomaterial at home. After researching and looking through the options, I decided to create an egg carton cornstarch card as the materials were easy to find and the recipe was not complicated to understand. My plan was to make a jewellery dish as the product of this material.
These are the materials/instructions to create the biomaterial –
Materials: egg carton (20 grams), glycerol (5 ml), water (60 ml), vinegar (5 ml), cornstarch (13.3 grams)
PROCESS
