Before ending good terms with this challenging year, Domestik explores the uses of natural dye. Although natural dyes aren’t something new to the world, we’d like to make use of whatever there is from the natural resources around our environment which consisted of an enjoyable process.
As the name suggests, the coloring materials were obtained from plants and minerals. Each color has a distinctive process and presents its’ own character. Check out the detailed guide for each coloring process below.
Blue
When you search Indigofera on your browser, you’re going to find information on how to use the plant as a textile color. However, the dying process isn’t as hard as you might think it’d be. We chose Indigofera in the form of pasta. Before using it, the Indigo pasta must be mixed with other additional materials: either red sugar, soda ash, hydro sulphate, and many more depending on what you like best.
We were surprised by the results when mixing Indigo with water because it displayed a strong jade green color, a vibrant, rich green mixed with a touch of blue. The more green it is, the darker the blue it becomes after several dippings in the dye, which resulted in a 7-10x dipping process within the dye to achieve the desired Indigo color. Every coloring process must go through a fixative step and depending on the color as well, we must consider using appropriate materials. For Indigo, we used 90% vinegar.
Grey
The skin of a processed Jolawe fruit will produce different colors depending on the fixative used: either chalk, tunjung (FeSO4), or tawas/alum. This is different than Indigo where it possesses a strong solid color. Instead, Jolawe produces a lighter color when using tawas and chalk and the other way around where it produces a darker color when using tunjung (FeSO4). Jolawe’s own origin color is brown therefore the gray color produced displays a brown silhouette when carefully observed.
Mint Green, Green
During our trial and error process, we took the time to join a Batik coloring workshop in one of the nearby villages. The information exchange process allows us to develop ideas in color mixing with different processes that are normally done in the workshop.
Mixing between Indigo and Jolawe and two other fixatives, through several experiments we’ve managed to develop green and mint colors.
Brown, Cream
There are three materials that you can use to develop the brown color, by using Jolawe, Manggis skin, and Tingi. Every material will produce a brown colour that is not much different at glance. The brown color we produced is a mixture of Jolawe and Manggis skin.
Each garment is dyed with a unique pigment dye process creating a one of a kind piece. Colour variation within the garment is inherent to this special dye process. isn’t tie dye nor fabrication dyed from manufacture
