Introduction to Natural Dyes & Pigments

image of Earth Pigments used in our Eco Art classes

In my quest for searching for a toolkit for a more sustainable art studio at Green School, I have discovered an entire universe of information that is rich in history, culture, and nature. The use of natural dyes and pigments in creative practices is embedded in human nature. Art would not exist if we were not interested in building our world from raw materials. From aboriginal Australian paintings dated to 28,000 years ago, to the Egyptian pyramids, to European art history and the spice trade, to present-day practices of “bioart” utilising live tissues and organisms, I have to give humans a lot of credit for the ways that we have used nature to making this world, and our many cultures within, extraordinary.

Yet, when it comes to fine arts, why is it that we have come so far from working with nature as our source for the materials? “At a time when the American public is becoming hyper-vigilant about lead in toys, BPA in plastic, CO2 emissions, and pesticides on produce,” why is it that “so few artists are talking about how art supplies figure into sustainability”? (1).This goes for both professional artists and teaching art in schools. Art students rarely receive proper training on using hazardous materials. They are exposed to paints that contain heavy metals, varnishes, and solvents, that emit toxic fumes that can lead to various diseases. In a 2010 study, researchers found that painters are at an increased risk of developing bladder cancer than any other profession. “There’s also environmental damage resulting from the mining and production of these materials, and from their improper disposal”, so when an artist decides to ditch that painting that’s been haunting her for months, it takes a toll on our landfills, water systems, and wildlife (2).

This last part is what really gets me. Knowing that my experimental acryclic (plastic) paintings that I made on bleached cotton canvas will take more than my lifetime to decompose makes me feel embarrassed. Because some of those paintings are actually pretty bad. But like Ira Glass says on creativity, “the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work,” and that’s something I truly believe in. So, is there a way to make your work without negatively impacting (or even positively impacting) the world around you?

My whole life I’ve relied on the art supply store to give me the tools I needed to make something. I remember the first place I drove to when I received my drivers’ license was the large-chain art store. I’ll never forget the feeling of walking down the aisles scheming all of the countless possibilities to make something original– something authentically me. With my keys in one hand and a $20 bill in the other, I had finally found my ticket to freedom.

Now that I have the opportunity to teach teenagers (who, in their respective countries would be getting their own driver licenses), I understand how important it is to have lots of resources to explore their talents and curiosities. Because of this, I’m not saying that we should make art like cavemen, although I do believe we have lots to learn from our indigenous ancestors. But I can’t imagine a life without Pigma Micron Pens, whose technology in submicron-particle ink makes each pen worth the $5.

In the same way that I hope a chef knows what and how to grow food in their region, we as 21st century artists should learn what and how to make our own place-based palette.

image of grinding pigment from rocks found in Redcliffe, Queensland

“If you open up a box of paints, there are numerous such stories hidden inside it. They are stories of sacredness and profanity, of nostalgia and innovation, of secrecy and myth, of luxury and texture, of profit and loss, of fading and poison, of cruelty and greed, and of the determination of some people to let nothing stop them in the pursuit of beauty” (Finlay).

So far I’ve touched base on 3 important aspects of eco-art research:

1. What the ingredients and constituents of art supplies are (human and environmental health)
2. How long they last (short and long-term impact)
3. Where supplies are sourced (A factory in China? The dirt in your backyard?)

In my previous post, Eco Art Manifesto , I talked about some of the hazardous compounds found in common art supplies. This year at Green School, we have sourced inorganic pigments from a company called Earth Pigments based out of the USA. This company sources many of their pigments from quarries in France, but they come from all over the world. One of my goals this quarter is to understand what some of the place-based pigments and dyes of Indonesia and Australia, but before I leap to my experiments, I want to cover the basics of what natural dyes and pigments are. This post is dedicated to examining the uses of natural pigments & dyes, their applications, and where they come from.

Some Terminology:

DYE
Dyes are colored chemicals that are either a liquid themselves or are easily dissolved in a liquid.
Examples: bark, berries, roots, insects, fungi

ORGANIC PIGMENT
1) Natural: “This type of pigment is derived from animal products and plant products. The use of these pigments are rare due to their poor light fastness property. Before the beginning of the modern era, the natural organic pigments were considered as an important part of the historical pigments. Earlier these are used for bodily ornaments, textile dyeing and cosmetics.”
2) Synthetic: “Synthetic Organic Pigments are carbon based and are often made from petroleum compounds. Most of the Synthetic Organic Pigments except Carbon Black are not stable and they will wear away at the time of using as a pigment” (3)
Examples: turmeric, indigo, anthroquinone, and azo dyes.(4)

INORGANIC PIGMENT
“These Mineral-earth type pigments are very simple and naturally occurring colored substances. The preparation process is also simple and consists of the steps of washing, drying, pulverizing and mixing into a formulation” (5)
Examples: Iron oxide yellow, prussian blue, titanium white , cobalt blue, and cadmium yellow

MORDANT
“A mordant is a substance used to set dyes on fabrics or tissue sections by forming a coordination complex with the dye which then attaches to the fabric or tissue. It may be used for dyeing fabrics, or for intensifying stains in cell or tissue preparations. The term mordant comes from the present participle of French mordre, “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” (6)

VEHICLE
“Vehicle is the carrier, or medium that a dye or pigment is dissolved or suspended in. The waterproof quality of a paint or product has nothing to do with the colorant and everything to do with the vehicle. Raw Umber is a pigment that’s basically dirt. You can wash it off with water. But when mixed with linseed oil, as in artist’s oil paint, it becomes waterproof. Dried raw umber acrylic paint, although water based and water washable, is waterproof once dried. But raw umber watercolor paint will wash right off your brushes, even after drying. It has to do with the medium. Pigments and dyes can both be carried in a vehicle.  If the dye is dissolved in a medium, such as water or alcohol, you can “paint” with a dye” (7)

COLORANT
A colorant can be either a pigment or a dye, depending on the vehicle involved. Sometimes, a pigment can be manufactured from a dye to be made into future dyes. We learned about this technique from our field trip to Sanur when Ibu Rika put limestone in the indigo dye bath. The limestone absorbed the dye, and could be used again.

image of plants extracting into water. source: theapparel.biz

PIGMENT ORIGINS

Pigments come from all over the place. Many pigments were traded as a form of currency, ranking their importance to civilization. Some are more rare than others, and some are completely obsolete. For example, “tyrian purple was actually made from a rather slimy source: a predatory snail. Tyrian Purple got its name from the best of the marine shellfish used to make the pigment being found off the shore of Phoenicia’s Tyre, according to Pigment Compendium. Not only was it a properly royal color of rich, slightly red purple, it was said to get even more beautiful and brighter when exposed to the sun and the elements” (8)

Nowadays, colors with ancient names such as “Mayan Blue” are manufactured synthetically. “A revolution in colorant history occurred in 1856, when English chemist William Henry Perkin (1838–1907) discovered a way to manufacture a dye in the laboratory. That dye, mauve, was produced from materials found in common coal tar. Perkin’s discovery showed chemists that dyes and pigments could be produced synthetically (by humans in a lab). It was no longer necessary to search out natural products for use as colorants” (9). It seems simple enough, to have all of the colors of the rainbow at your fingertips. It’s unfortunate that making these ancient colors more accessible, though, come with the cost of human and environmental health.

So, this is the start of my exploration of plant-and-place-based color practicum. Stay tuned for experiments!

References:

Finlay, Victoria (2007-12-18). Color: A Natural History of the Palette (Kindle Locations 472-474). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.