Mellow Yellow, 2021

Natural dyes offer an extensive realm of possibilities and revelations regarding color hues and their properties. One noteworthy aspect of natural dyes is their capacity to change in hue when exposed to light. This stands in contrast to synthetic dyes, which tend to produce consistent and predictable results. Some may perceive the fading quality of natural dyes as a disadvantage.

In the Yellow Mellow project, my aim was to delve into this "disadvantage" by closely examining how colors transform under light exposure. The research process involved three distinct stages and focused on two specific colors: yellow and blue. This choice was made because yellow hues are generally known to have lower lightfastness levels compared to blue hues.

Several questions guided my exploration: Would the addition of indigo enhance the lightfastness of the yellow shades? What colors would emerge after exposure to light?
And how could these outcomes be harnessed as an
aesthetic language?

To thoroughly test these questions, I applied the dyes to four distinct types of silk, sourced from various regions around the world, and with different silk percentages. Natural dyes are known for their reactivity with animal fibers, making silk, among others, the ideal choice in this regard.

The first stage involved a dyeing process, where I chose six distinct yellowish shades using diverse plants, each with varying degrees of lightfastness. In the second stage, I immersed these shades in an indigo vat. The third step focused on subjecting the newly created shades to sunlight in order to assess their lightfastness.

The experiment extended for six weeks, during which fabric samples were exposed to sunlight every week and a half. After each exposure, a piece of fabric was cut and reserved for subsequent comparison. This approach allowed me to create an archive that demonstrates the evolution of colors over time and holds 800 different color samples.