story behind the soya milk binder 2010

story behind the soya milk binder

living in an area of outstanding natural beauty my studio practice could not involve dyes that might discharge into my local stream so I was looking for an alternative process to colour fabric

walking through the stunning Roussillon ochre quarry in France in 2008 I was curious about the history so visited the Conservatoire in the old factory and was captivated by the sample board of natural earth pigments and was convinced, somehow that I could incorporate them into my textile work without using an acrylic binder but importantly the cloth had to remain tactile & colourfast

my pioneering research over several years to find a biodegradable binder led to the discovery of an ancient Japanese soya milk recipe that was used in indigo dying. Adapting the recipe using fine art techniques I was able to bind ground earth pigments to natural fibres and have used this process successfully for over a decade