Colouring textiles is a process that is very old. A lot of people like decorated textiles and using colour is one way to do this.
In this article I am going to describe different ways of colouring that can be used as in inspiration to colour textiles and fibres in the future.
In this article I am going to describe different ways of colouring that can be used as in inspiration to colour textiles and fibres in the future.
Colours created with pigment
Plants like Indigo, roots from plants (madder), earth (Sienna) or vegetables and fruits (like lycopene in tomato’s) can be used to make colour. [2] | Animals also have colours, like the Chameleon that changes color rapidly due to contraction and distention of pigmented granules in superimposed cell layers.[3] |
Another way of changing colour in nature is due to fluid, which is done by the tortoise beetle. The exoskeleton of the tortoise beetle changes color and reflective properties due to a chirped multilayer reflector filled with grooves that fill and empty of fluid to cover and reveal, respectively, the bottommost layer.[4]
Imagine applying this to innovative textiles. Different layers of a transparent, waterproof material that contains grooves that can be filled with fluid to change a colour. An example of transparent layers with a colour fluid is the algae windows that can be used to generate energy in buildings.[5]
Dyeing textiles
Humans use natural pigments extracted from nature to colour textiles. Some of them when used in the right process are able to stay biodegradable and can be used on biodegradable textiles. For example rubia-nc.com
There are also a lot of pigments that are synthesized by humans. Some of them are biodegradable others aren’t.
To dye textiles with pigment most factories use water together with additives as a basic solution to solve the pigment and create colour. If you like to know more about the water dye process take a look at the wet processing benchmark of Made-by, click here.
Now there are also techniques without water: Co2 dye
Dyecoo developed a dyeing machine that dyes textile using CO2. The textile is placed on a cylinder inside the machine. The CO2 is pumped into the machine. The pressure is raised to around 250 bar, the CO2 liquidizes and mixes with the dye. Through circulation the textile is dyed. After the dying cycle the pressure is removed, after which the CO2 turns back into gas and the fabric dries. The dye used for dying in CO2 is the same as the one used in the current dying process with water but without addition of extra chemicals such as dispersion agents, salts etc. The remaining dye is collected after each dying cycle and this way it will not end up in the environment. (click here to see the No H2O project of Refinity made with this dye)
With Co2 it is also possible to remove dye. This is interesting because then you are able to reuse the fabric and pigments. I will tell you more about that in another blog article.
Humans use natural pigments extracted from nature to colour textiles. Some of them when used in the right process are able to stay biodegradable and can be used on biodegradable textiles. For example rubia-nc.com
There are also a lot of pigments that are synthesized by humans. Some of them are biodegradable others aren’t.
To dye textiles with pigment most factories use water together with additives as a basic solution to solve the pigment and create colour. If you like to know more about the water dye process take a look at the wet processing benchmark of Made-by, click here.
Now there are also techniques without water: Co2 dye
Dyecoo developed a dyeing machine that dyes textile using CO2. The textile is placed on a cylinder inside the machine. The CO2 is pumped into the machine. The pressure is raised to around 250 bar, the CO2 liquidizes and mixes with the dye. Through circulation the textile is dyed. After the dying cycle the pressure is removed, after which the CO2 turns back into gas and the fabric dries. The dye used for dying in CO2 is the same as the one used in the current dying process with water but without addition of extra chemicals such as dispersion agents, salts etc. The remaining dye is collected after each dying cycle and this way it will not end up in the environment. (click here to see the No H2O project of Refinity made with this dye)
With Co2 it is also possible to remove dye. This is interesting because then you are able to reuse the fabric and pigments. I will tell you more about that in another blog article.
You could also use the natural colour of a plant, for example did you know cotton comes in multiple colours? This fabric is made with 3 natural colours of cotton, without dyeing them, this saves a step in the production process. There is experimental evidence to demonstrate that naturally pigmented cottons, especially green cotton, have excellent sun protection properties, when compared with unbleached white cotton that needs to be treated with dyes or finishes to obtain similar properties. [6] |
Colours created without pigmentThere are even coloured items in nature without using pigment. Like the morpho butterfly an inspiration for Teijin Fibers Limited. Carvings in the yarn in combination with the illumination angle makes it look like this yarn has colour.[7] How are you adding colour in your design process? With or without pigment? And can you do this in a more environment friendly way? |
Source
1: Rijksmuseum, object BK-BR-453-T , Egypt, ca. 200 - ca. 999, woven natural linen/wool with geometrical coloured decoration. http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.65708
2. Tomato, Wikimedia commons
3. Chameleon, www.asknature.org
4. Tortoise Beetle, www.asknature.org, Image: Jean Pol Vigneron and colleagues, Physical Review E 76, 031907 (2007)
5. Algae facade panels, Splitterwerk Architects, photo by KOS Wulff
6. Undyed cotton, Hustvedt, G., & Crews, P. C. (2005). Textile Technology, The Journal of Cotton Science, p. 47-56, picture taken by Fioen from her sample collection
7. Morphotex from Teijin fibers Limited, http://www.asknature.org
At www.asknature.org you can ask a design question in a search engine and as results they give examples of how nature solves your problem.
1: Rijksmuseum, object BK-BR-453-T , Egypt, ca. 200 - ca. 999, woven natural linen/wool with geometrical coloured decoration. http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.65708
2. Tomato, Wikimedia commons
3. Chameleon, www.asknature.org
4. Tortoise Beetle, www.asknature.org, Image: Jean Pol Vigneron and colleagues, Physical Review E 76, 031907 (2007)
5. Algae facade panels, Splitterwerk Architects, photo by KOS Wulff
6. Undyed cotton, Hustvedt, G., & Crews, P. C. (2005). Textile Technology, The Journal of Cotton Science, p. 47-56, picture taken by Fioen from her sample collection
7. Morphotex from Teijin fibers Limited, http://www.asknature.org
At www.asknature.org you can ask a design question in a search engine and as results they give examples of how nature solves your problem.