stained

I focused on furniture and surfaces using plant and food waste. I decided to use natural dyes and natural pigments to stain wood. Being my first time working with wood, I chose Balsa as I wanted to create small scale lightweight models and wanted an extremely light coloured wood in order to properly experiment with how deeply the pigment would soak. I sketched out and made models of 3 chairs. The design and form for all 3 were inspired by different shapes and forms that I saw in nature. One of the most interesting process of the entire project was collecting different types of food waste and seeing how vibrant and dull the pigments are. I experimented with blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, red cabbage, beetroot and wine. 

The first chair design was inspired by blackberries and dyed using the same. I was most happy with the results I derived from blackberries. A vibrant shade of magenta that the wood seemed to retain even when exposed to the sun for long intervals. The rounded edges, circular seat and cylindrical legs played into the clustered spheres of a blackberry. 

The second chair was a rectangular shaped back on a square seat, all parts of which were dyed with beetroot. The beetroot dyed chair had an almost dusty light pinecone shade of brown and darker patches where the dye base was touching the wood. 

The third chair was a 3 legged stool which was dyed using red cabbage. The stool has a round seat with cylindrical legs, the inspiration of which once again was drawn from the shape of the cabbage. This vibrant purple shade would be my most preferred shade as it looks almost artificial and since red cabbage usually bleeds blue, I was pleasantly surprised with the lively shade of purple. 

Stained allowed me to explore and experiment with the relationship different materials shared and built with each other. Marrying together wood and natural dyes that were extracted from plant and food waste had a unique earthy allure to it. The shapes and forms inspired from the dye base itself created a very playful harmony with the dyed wood.