Crafting Nature’s Palette for Sustainable Printing
Introduction
For our ecological interactions class, we were tasked with creating a place specific cottage industry, that takes local natural resources and turns them into unique products for the community. The cottage industry should be mostly self-sufficient, and should use resources intentionally and responsibly, to promote longevity and healthy ecosystems for human and non-human species. Our cottage industry is set in Valldaura, and stems from the idea of a farm dedicated to seasonal natural dye production.
Agricultural Model
Barcelona’s climate offers the ideal conditions for growing a large variety of crops throughout the year, providing a diverse selection that can be used for dyes and other products. We have researched and carefully selected a set of crops for each season of the year.
In spring you get softer pigments from younger leaves and several flower petal varieties.
In the summer we’ll have richer colors from longer, sunnier days.
Meanwhile, autumn and winter offer earthier tones.
Black, brown, red and yellow are available year round, with varying tones depending on the plant providing the color that season. The core seasonal colors include spring green, summer berry, autumn gold and winter purple.
This selection is just the beginning. There are hundreds if not thousands of plant varieties with beautiful dye potential. When choosing a new plant, we must consider its nutrient and resource requirements, to maintain healthy soil and minimize water usage. We also want to make the most of the entire plant by using non-dye parts for additional products. A seasonal agricultural model is ideal for environmental and economic longevity, and also fun and interesting for customers, as they can look forward to new products throughout the year.
The Seasonal Store
The foundation of Chromascope Studios, and the starting point for our research and product development is the production of plant-based printer ink for standard printers in homes, offices, businesses and schools in the Barcelona area. Natural dyes are somewhat common for clothing, textile printing, and even food, but natural ink for traditional paper printers is rare and underdeveloped.
Natural Dye-Based Printer Ink Recipe
Make the Plant Extract:
1. Chop 100g fresh plant material.
2. Simmer gently in 500ml distilled water (60-90°) for 20-40 min.
3. Cool and strain or let settle.
Take 700-850 ml filtered
plant extract and add:
1. 80-150ml Glycerol (prevents ink
from drying in cartridges).
2. 30-50ml Propylene Glycol (solvent)
3. 1-3% Ethanol (to preserve ink on paper)
4. Sodium Bicarbonate (to adjust pH)
Filter again.
The Seasonal Store is where farming, dye-making, and experimenting with alternative and new technologies come together in a themed showcase for visitors and collaborators. Every season, the store will transform to present select dyes and inks from our library/almanac, fresh paper, and new products based on that season. The store is also where stories come alive. Each product carries the story of the plants, flowers, berries and the season they flourished in. Through an aesthetic card, we will present the plants used, their journey through the farm, their importance to the soil, the season, and the ecosystem, as well as their connections to the people of their land. We will also showcase our lab’s research and experiments, be it objects 3D-printed in paper mache, or patterned and textured handmade paper, posters and cards printed using our natural printer ink.
Every product will be produced in-house. Since the paper will be made using leftover plant material from the ink making process, it holds a pale memory of the
colours and textures of each season. The paper will have layers like husks from seeds, fibres from roots and stems, and fall leaves, to bring each season into one’s hands.
Product Examples
Paper
◦ Seasonal collection of handmade paper
◦ Seed paper
◦ Notebooks and diaries
◦ Cards & bookmarks
Natural Dyes & Inks
◦ Season’s natural dyes
◦ Natural dye based printer ink
◦ Living ink
Experience
◦ A space where visitors can experience the stories and processes from the farm, lab and almanac.
Connecting with Community
Natural dyes are by no means a new concept, but most of the products we use in our everyday lives use synthetic dyes that likely involved environmentally and socially harmful components that traveled great distances before entering our hands. If we are going to try and expand the use of local, natural dyes, we need to share our findings and processes with our local communities. Our farm/workshop will host visitors, allowing them to see the ink making process, from seed to the final product, and participate in interactive workshops. We will have informational guides that explain our seasonal growing model.
We want to foster a culture where natural dyes are as well known and respected as synthetic dyes and inks. If we can make ink that is more affordable, this alone could incentivize people to switch to natural inks. With our interactive business model and community outreach initiatives, we hope they’ll subsequently come to understand and appreciate our industry’s environmental and social benefits as well.
The Future
Every plant that we test in Valldaura, which includes our own plants, plants from our farming collaborators, and from local customers, goes into our living atlas. Every swatch has its color sample, the season it was collected in, soil data (including pH, which is one factor that can affect color) and the extraction method. With this
collection of information, we can understand different ecosystems through color.
In addition to the Atlas, we will create an Ink Almanac, showing real time color availability per season. This not only shows what plants are currently in season, but it also goes into depth on pigment families, and provides a forecast for possible colors that will soon be available thanks to the natural processes and work going into our garden.
The Chromascope is a device similar to a soil tester, but combined with a color palette. It scans plants using a special light, and then provides information about its potential pigment families, suggested formulations and mixtures for the ink. It also shows a dynamic forecast depending on how or when you the plants is extracted. People arrive with something for us: a weed, a flower, leftover fruit peel. We put their plant into the chromascope and the chromascope gives us an analysis and color prediction. We then extract a small batch (~10ml) and we print them a personalized seasonal postcard for a small amount of money. With this process, we have a new color to add into our Living Color Atlas and the customer gets a unique souvenir.
Since every plant has its own timeline and every plant is bio-adaptive, the lab thinks of ink as something responsive, rather than static. The ink hosts microbes so suddenly the ink is alive and it reacts to its exterior. Dyes with chlorophyll can react to UV light, producing colours that warm up with heat or cool down with the cold. The ink can also react with humidity or even fermentation, and could be used on a milk carton that changes color when its spoiled.
In Chromascope Studios we think every plant carries a story that is waiting to be translated into colours. Light, heat, time and water reveal each plant hidden colours. From a small encounter between us and our neighbours, an ink is born – first tested, then adjusted and finally printed. We bind human essence with nature bringing the swatch of colour to our Living Atlas, so the name of the person who brought it and their story is always connected to us and Valldaura. Over time, our Living Atlas becomes a map of relationships: between cultivation and care for the plant, memory and color, soil and place.
We turn their participation in authorship, the laboratory becomes a landscape of shared stories, colours and futures.
