IN PURSUIT OF COLOR
Lauren MacDonald, a multidisciplinary designer, writer, and the founder of the textile studio Working Cloth, has recently published a book on colour, In Pursuit of Colour. We spoke to her to find out about her research and what the book reveals about colour.
Would you be able to provide a brief overview and a few snippets from the book such as highlights?
In Pursuit of Color is a book about the history and culture of textile dyeing. It features 19 stories of some of the most famous, fascinating, and just plain weird substances that humans have used to dye cloth for countless millennia, alongside some modernised historical recipes and contemporary context.
Image: Page from In Pursuit of Color by Lauren MacDonald. Image above courtesy of the Science History Institute.
When writing, I really wanted to convey a sense of scale—of just how dogged our pursuit of colour has been. Now, we think of natural dyes primarily as a craft or artisanal trade, but 200 years ago they were big business.
Some chapters are interviews with contemporary practitioners trying to document and save lost arts, while others are are stories of industrial superpowers and colonial violence. Some are a combination of all three.
Murex, for example, is the story Mouhammed Ghassen Nouira, a Tunisian man who has spent the last 15 years or so trying (and succeeding) to recreate the sea snail based purples of ancient Phoenicia. These rich plums and sanguineous burgundies were once so lauded that the spiky shells they came from were minted on coins. Mountains of ancient shell debris still litter the coastlines of their old manufacturing centres. At certain points, the Roman Emperor himself decided who could and couldn't don the famous colour (with sometimes fatal consequences for those who dared deny him).
What have you learn about how we create colour now?
I recently came across an organisation, Patagon Fiber, who are creating dyes from bacteria in southern Chile. Is sustainability increasingly becoming a key factor in how we create colour?
Bacterial dyes are an interesting one. There have been a spate of companies in the past five years or so pushing this technology, and while I think it's kind of incredible, I also wonder about its use at scale, and about the social and economic systems that it's being used in. Our current problem is one of over production, and while tech like this can help to produce textiles with less of an environmental footprint, they'll still have an impact. So while they might play a role in damage reduction, they won't solve the crisis we're currently facing.
Image: In Pursuit of Color, European blue print, a mix of resist block printing and indigo dye, at the H. Fischer dye works, Neukirch-Lausitz, eastern Germany, 1940.
Patagon Fiber will be presenting at our annual Wardrobe Revolution Symposium. Learn about approaches and innovations to tackle the environmental and social devastation caused by the fast fashion industry and book your ticket here:
www.selvedge.org/products/wardrobe-revolution-weekend
Lauren will also be hosting a Hand-Quilting online workshop on Saturday 18 & Saturday 25 November 2023. Find out more and book your spot:
www.selvedge.org/products/hand-quilting-with-lauren-macdonald
In Pursuit of Color by Lauren MacDonald is out now. Find and more and order your copy:
tenderbooks.co.uk/products/in-pursuit-of-color-lauren-macdonald
Would you be able to provide a brief overview and a few snippets from the book such as highlights?
In Pursuit of Color is a book about the history and culture of textile dyeing. It features 19 stories of some of the most famous, fascinating, and just plain weird substances that humans have used to dye cloth for countless millennia, alongside some modernised historical recipes and contemporary context.
Image: Page from In Pursuit of Color by Lauren MacDonald. Image above courtesy of the Science History Institute.
When writing, I really wanted to convey a sense of scale—of just how dogged our pursuit of colour has been. Now, we think of natural dyes primarily as a craft or artisanal trade, but 200 years ago they were big business.
Some chapters are interviews with contemporary practitioners trying to document and save lost arts, while others are are stories of industrial superpowers and colonial violence. Some are a combination of all three.
Murex, for example, is the story Mouhammed Ghassen Nouira, a Tunisian man who has spent the last 15 years or so trying (and succeeding) to recreate the sea snail based purples of ancient Phoenicia. These rich plums and sanguineous burgundies were once so lauded that the spiky shells they came from were minted on coins. Mountains of ancient shell debris still litter the coastlines of their old manufacturing centres. At certain points, the Roman Emperor himself decided who could and couldn't don the famous colour (with sometimes fatal consequences for those who dared deny him).
What have you learn about how we create colour now?
I recently came across an organisation, Patagon Fiber, who are creating dyes from bacteria in southern Chile. Is sustainability increasingly becoming a key factor in how we create colour?
Bacterial dyes are an interesting one. There have been a spate of companies in the past five years or so pushing this technology, and while I think it's kind of incredible, I also wonder about its use at scale, and about the social and economic systems that it's being used in. Our current problem is one of over production, and while tech like this can help to produce textiles with less of an environmental footprint, they'll still have an impact. So while they might play a role in damage reduction, they won't solve the crisis we're currently facing.
Image: In Pursuit of Color, European blue print, a mix of resist block printing and indigo dye, at the H. Fischer dye works, Neukirch-Lausitz, eastern Germany, 1940.
Patagon Fiber will be presenting at our annual Wardrobe Revolution Symposium. Learn about approaches and innovations to tackle the environmental and social devastation caused by the fast fashion industry and book your ticket here:
www.selvedge.org/products/wardrobe-revolution-weekend
Lauren will also be hosting a Hand-Quilting online workshop on Saturday 18 & Saturday 25 November 2023. Find out more and book your spot:
www.selvedge.org/products/hand-quilting-with-lauren-macdonald
In Pursuit of Color by Lauren MacDonald is out now. Find and more and order your copy:
tenderbooks.co.uk/products/in-pursuit-of-color-lauren-macdonald