Everyone is invited for a special meetup at Hackuarium. Fran Quero is back from OpenFIESTA, and it would be great to have some fun together! On my end there will be the latest on the OpenFlexure epifluor, and Luc Patiny is especially working on the Bioreactor lately. What can you bring? Let’s Hack together! @dusjagr @gaudi @mamaya @corinna.mattner and all!
15Feb 11h Route de Crochy 20, 1020 Ecublens
(sorry for the last minute notice - it all came together quickly, and we hope you can come!)
Dear Rachel
Sorry I can’t make it, we are on vacation, before and leaving to Berlin that day…
Have a good meet-up!
See you another time,
Corinna
next time!
I wanted to ask you something about natural colors for fabric- is it ok if it’s here?
It was from one of those videos where things look too good to be true.
Here are a couple (which can you confirm? do they survive washing??):
red onion skins and vinegar for bright green
carrot leaves for yellow (boil, no vinegar)
red cabbage juice - I know acidic vs basic gives from magenta pink to green/blue, but… can this be fixed to fabric? (and survive a wash?)
Thank you!
Hope you have (had) a great workshop this weekend (or was it last?) in Basel!
I’ve dyed wool, and silk with lichen, fungi, and onion skins.
It really depends on the type of fibre - silk needs to be fixed differently
then wool. Soaking wool or yarn in water with a mordant added
will ensure your natural dye fixes to what you are dyeing.
The wool I’ve dyed has stayed bright, without colour loss, same with silk.
That said, I generally work with wool…
Here’s a link to some info concerning mordants online: http://www.allnaturaldyeing.com/mordants-fixatives/
and lichen
https://www.fungimag.com/summer-2014-articles/LR2%20V7I2%2066-69%20Dies.pdf
I’ve never tried carrot leaves! 
I’ve done a bit of natural dying so I’ll chime in too. There are differences as well if the fiber is protein based (like wool or silk) or cellulose based (like linen, cotton, etc). Different mordants and different treatment regimes, especially if you want to have the colors last without bleeding. An incredible resource for this that I’ve found is Sasha Duerr’s work, such as her book “Natural Color: Vibrant Plant Dye Projects for Your Home and Wardrobe”. Also, in the US, a great online store is Botanical Colors (https://botanicalcolors.com/ ). I’ve ordered their organic indigo dye kits before, which don’t require lye, and they work quite well.
Looking forward to finally come to your new lab of Hackuarium! it’s time!!
i could present some recent research into bacterial nanocellulose, aka Nata de Coco, i hope to have more time to go into practical research in the upcoming months.
We have more other discussions in various dies here:
Also i can share our upoming activities in the SGMK circles, we are currently seeing our role in connecting different hackerspaces accross the regions in swtizerland and organize various gatherings and visits, such as WERK-Spionage in Basel, 27. -29. Feb. And upcoming move to the new hackerspace WG in Züri, Bitwäscherei
Cu you soon.
marc
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see you soon and thanks for the dye tips!
I am more worried about getting affordable lab quality water right now.
(realised our old milliQ, that I always planned to splurge on the cartridges for, cannot start from tap water! It looks like I have to try for a ‘direct Q’ type system, which new is over 4k chf!
(maybe even without the filters).