A guide to understanding the natural transformation
By Gina Martinez and Roberto MS.
Colour is everywhere in nature but also around us, it is essential to our life.
Natural dyes have been used for centuries. They are the result of human knowledge transferred over millennia. Is a result of the wisdom of understanding nature, and taking the elements that allow transferring those vibrant shades of light into every element we collect from nature and transform with our hands. Human creativity needs colours to fully express itself and this is part of that result.
From wood to plants, flowers and insects, we have collected a glimpse of such human wisdom to illustrate how complex and fabulous the path to obtaining truly natural colours is.
Copal wood is used by artisans in Mexico to carve alebrijes, mythical and fantastic beasts born from the dreams of the artisan.
The copal tree secretes a resin that solidifies in contact with air.
When the resin is on the tree that produced it: It confers advantages to the tree, since the resin helps the tree to defend itself against herbivores, parasites and pathogens.
It protects young leaves, as by covering their surface it prevents drying out and blocks the ultraviolet radiation.
The resin is also used for various cultural practices: By burning it with charcoal, it produces the characteristic aroma of incense used in ancestral rites, celebrations, or traditional healing sessions. It is believed that when passing the incense around, with the distinctive white and fragrant smoke that emanates from the coals, it purifies the believer, and even serves as a guide for souls towards the afterlife.
To this date, about 12,000 species of resin-producing plants have been found in the world, that are part of different taxonomic families, including the Burseraceae, to which the approximately 100 types of Copal trees belong.
Copal trees measure between four and twelve meters, with some reaching up to 30 meters high, and some other shrubs are between 1 to 3 meters tall, with their crowns generally being wider than higher.
At least 80 percent from all the Bursera species naturally inhabits Mexico and it is distributed mainly along the Pacific coast.
Source: National Commission for the Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity.
Tinctures
Red copal has a layer between the wood core and the bark which after drying in the sun and grinding, gives orange and reddish tinctures. These tinctures can then be mixed with different elements to produce different tones:
– They give an ocher colour when mixed with lime juice and honey.
– The ocher tincture mixed with carbon dust, gives a black tincture.
– The ocher tincture mixed with limestone powder, gives a pomegranate red.
From the indigo root, the following can be obtained:
– The fermented root combined with ash, gives indigo blue.
– Indigo tincture mixed with fermented huitlacoche (corn smut, also considered by many “corn truffle”) with limestone, produces green.
To obtain grey, light blue, and lilac, the mentioned dyes are degraded with a powder of zinc oxide or with hydrated limestone.
Hydrated limestone is prepared in a clay container by adding limestone and water, and sealing the container so the chemical reaction takes place. When opening the recipient, the white powder remains at the bottom. This powder will be then used to dilute any colour.
From the cochineal, a parasite that grows on the nopal (whitish when fresh, greyish when dehydrated, and red when pressed) several other tinctures can be obtained:
– When combined with lime juice and honey, it produces blood red.
– When combined with zinc oxide powder, it gives light purple.
– When combined with limestone powder, it gives tuna purple.
If these dyes are then combined with indigo, they transform into various shades.
When combining pomegranate juice:
– With limestone powder, it gives forest green.
– With indigo, it gives jade green.
– With lime juice, gives blues.
– When rubbing the pomegranate peel with limestone, it turns yellow.
– By letting it oxidize, it gives brown.
Cempasuchil gives tinges of orange; beets provide tints of pink; from the avocado’s pit fuchsias can be obtained (but it takes almost a year for it to ferment, then grind and combine with limestone, so that they generate a chemical reaction).
Lime is a very effective colour fixative, honey can be used as a varnish, and melted copal resin is a wonderful repellant.
