Project Presentation
Studio Project: Applied Design
Water pH Colors
When we were introduced to the applied design project I didn’t want to make another ‘thing’ that would eventually end up in a landfill or floating around in the middle of the ocean I wanted to make something meaningful, something that could make a change and actually contribute and help create conscience regarding environmental pollution.
After thinking about it for a while I was interested in creating something people could use to make art, to make visible creations related to water pollution that be shared and reach a lot of people.
In the end, I decided to create a set of watercolors people can use to understand and play with the different polluted or unpolluted waters around NYC. As we experienced in the natural dye workshop, the color of the anthocyanin pigment will change based on the ph of the solution. This way the color of the watercolors will depend on the ph of the water you are using to paint. I wanted to create something that was visible and tangible to create awareness on water pollution and how the pollution we might not be able to see at plain sight is in fact there having an effect on the water around us.
Anyone will be able to create art using water from these different places around NY and share their acquired knowledge about water pollution. By being able to create something tangible other people will be able to see the water pollution even if they don’t have the watercolors themselves, so the idea is for the knowledge to reach as many people as possible. Artists, kids, curious people and anyone who wants to learn about pollution can use these watercolors and create new things reflecting what they’ve learned. It would be so interesting to see how different people reflect on the experience and how they use their knowledge and experiment with the colors to create different types of art forms
The watercolors themselves are made using natural and biodegradable components and the pans are refillable, so you can give them back empty and get a discount on the new ones. I hope that one day everything we create will be made from biodegradable and environmentally friendly materials, but even then we will have all this plastic accumulated on our planet and we have to figure out something to do with it. So for this project, I decided to work with materials that already exist to create the containers and case in order to not keep producing more things. All the pans and the case are made from recycled and repurposed materials found in different water bodies around NY. The outside case is made of recycled aluminum, from cans and containers found floating around and the pans are made from different found plastics. The brochure and any packaging the product would need are made from biodegradable recycled paper. Everything can be returned to the company to be reused in other watercolors or different products or recycled separately. Since refillable art supplies are something you rarely throw out, it’s something that would last for a very long time, and that people could pass on to others. My hope is that this product would never end up in a landfill or polluting any part of the planet so everything is returnable to the company and can be gifted to other interested people.
The actual pigment used in the watercolors is made from anthocyanin, which is a natural pigment found in different vegetables, fruits, flowers, and plants. In this case, we will be using the pigment found in cabbage. To make the powder cabbage pigment there are various methods we can follow, we can boil the cabbage leaves for 45 minutes and then add a fine powder component to the colored water and wait for it to evaporate leaving only the colored pigment. For this, to work the powder needs to have a neutral ph so that it doesn’t affect the properties of the anthocyanin. Another way we could do this is by drying very pigmented cabbage leaves and then grinding them into a very fine powder.
The process of making watercolors is very long and requires different steps. First, we need to mix our powder pigment with gum arabic, a natural gum made from Acacia tree sap. It usually comes in crystals so after letting them dissolve in water for about a week we have the perfect consistency for the mixture. We can also add a bit of honey and a bit of glycerin to help with the consistency
When we mix the powder with the gum, it needs to be mulled until a silky consistency is achieved. We have to press the mixture with a glass muller to crush the crystals and mix everything perfectly. After the pigment is mulled we need to fill the pans halfway with the color to let it dry and save the rest of the mixture for later. This step will take about a week, depending on the weather and temperature, when all the water has evaporated and the watercolor is dry we need to fill it up again since the mixture would have reduced. This process will be repeated 3 or 4 times until we have a full pan and all the water has evaporated, leaving a solid watercolor.
The watercolors will be called Water PH Colors playing with the name of the product itself and how the colors vary with different ph’s. The brand that I created for this product is called Bio Art and it focuses on sustainable art materials and creating awareness around many different problems related to climate change and pollution. The watercolors would be distributed through different stands of the brand around NYC, in conventions and fairs related to climate change or any environmental topic, and on different art stores in the city. Every product sold by the company goes towards helping the environment and recovering waste from water bodies.
Renderings
Branding
