PH Natural Dye project 

Yiren Zhou

I want to apply this experiment into one of my project which is a zero waste garment project. The idea of this project is to use only one fabric to create a one-piece garment without any waist. Therefore, it is also about the idea of sustainable. After I made my design, I want to add some diversity on the color, therefore, I tried to apply tie-dye in the natural dye process. After I did the test of the fabric both on the silk that I used on my dress, also canvas, I decided to use drinking water to do my final design since it has the darkest color, also this is one type of water that relates to our daily life the most. I thought I might get the darkest color form the sample of Gowanus Lake because this is the only acid water resource. However, it created the lightest color.

The whole idea of this project about sustainable, the design of my dress is also full of the element of water, the curves, and lines are all indicate water. I chose cabbage as my vegetable to do the experiment because I the purple color matches with my dress.

The silk that I used is actually combined with poly, which is not an environmentally friendly fabric and the dress itself is actually not organic. This is a project with Ironic meaning. Human being has polluted nature, destroyed so many beautiful things, and making so many unnatural things. However, we are still trying to create beautiful things which mean we have the conscious to protect our nature. My work is an interpretation of this idea to show that We can make a difference, and we can change it in a creative way.

After did the experiment, I started to dye my fabric, I used 8 cups of water with 300g of cabbage.

To apply tie-dye into my design, I firstly used cotton thread tied the bottom of my dress.

Then put the dress into the dying material.

After the tire- dye process, the color of the dress doesn’t change dramatically, but you can still see the different layers of color

 

The shade is like the pollution that we bring to our nature. I want people who see my work ask themselves this question.

The dress looks beautiful, but what about the environment?

 I wanted to add more shade on the color, but I decided to keep the dress’s original look because I want to keep the fact as natural as possible.  Then I did a photo shoot at the central park to make a contrast between nature and fact.

 

Reflection: There is definitely some improvement that I can make if I do this project again, first would be the choice of fabric. The color doesn’t apply that much because it is too thick. Also, I might dye the fabric multiple times to create a more dramatic effect. In all, I think the main goal is to use an ironic way to present my work, and I think I expressed what I originally wanted to achieve.

Tag：The name of this garment is the flowing sadness.