Mapping East End Colour

Mapping East End Colour

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The project, Mapping East End Colour, began with students of the Eastern Ground  project and continued as a personal exploration into the dye potential of Glasgow’s East  End. This area has a strong historical ground in the production of textiles and the use of  natural dyes at an industrial scale and it is hoped that this project may contribute in some  small way to its ongoing textile culture and practice.  

All samples were dyed using flora collected within a mile of Julia’s studio on Rogart  Street, Bridgeton. Most were found in the existing landscape (encompassing streets,  industrial and recreational spaces and “wasteland”) while a few were cultivated in the  Eastern Ground dye and flower garden (a modest collection of half-barrels in the Rogart  Street Campus carpark). Species used were, for the most part, perennials growing in  large populations; in this way, dye material was gathered without damage to the plant  community or the individual, as could be the case with larger plants like trees and  shrubs. Any dye material from larger plants was collected as windfall, such as cones  dropped during a storm.  

A conscious effort was made to use a number of widespread, weedy and invasive  species, both to minimise impact on indigenous species struggling to compete and  thrive in challenging landscapes and to build further knowledge of the dye potential of  invasive plants. 

Dyeing was achieved through the simplest of methods; fresh dye material was shredded  and placed in glass jars filled with hot water to stimulate the release of its dye(s). Three  samples of silk cloth, a material chosen for its potential to display colour that was pre mordanted with aluminium salts to enable the uptake of dye, were then placed in the  dye bath. The jar was heated bain-marie-style to an adequate temperature to set the dye  and held there for 1-2 hours.  

The samples were then removed from the jar and one (sample A) was washed, rinsed  and labelled with no further treatment. Samples B and C were then dipped in a fresh-leaf  woad vat two to four times or modified in a copper or iron afterbath. These secondary  processes impact the primary colour of the dye to a lesser or greater degree and may  help extend its life (termed its degree of fastness to light and washing), which can  otherwise be relatively short-lived in some. 

These fifty-four samples show some of the shades achievable with eighteen local plants.  This selection forms a small part of the available species and it is planned that this  project will continue to explore and share the colour potential of the East End.

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