Project Coal Co-Founder Crystal Lee Teaches Us Natural Dyeing
In this DIY guide, co-founder of Project Coal Crystal Lee teaches us the basics of how to do natural dyeing at home.
Crafting (be it professionally or as a hobby) has become one of the biggest trends since the onset of the pandemic: we’ve been spending more time in; Its elements of tactility and slowness soothe in a manic world. And have you seen the amount of crochet on the runways recently?
For our June 2021 issue, we got four Singapore artists – each with her own fashion-related discipline – to share a project that lets you create something to add to the wardrobe at home.
When Crystal Lee co-founded Project Coal in 2014, it was one of the earliest to bring natural dyes to wider attention in Singapore.
These days, weaving and experimenting with natural dyes have become the stuff of trendy exhibitions and Instagram feeds, but when the seven-year-old outfit Project Coal started, there was hardly a community around them.
“It wasn’t a brand. It was just more of us sharing about the craft on a platform and making silk scarves for friends,” says co-founder Crystal Lee, who runs Project Coal with her photographer husband Hizuan Zailani.
An example of a woven work by Project Coal – a crafts category that Lee is keen on exploring and furthering.
To date, their focus remains less on “aesthetic”, but the materials and techniques that they work with to create small-batch, bespoke textiles and objects, making them true proponents of the slow craft movement.
In 2019, they started working with a loom and as of this year, have officially added decorative weavings to their repertoire. (An installation in collaboration with a chef friend who ran a private dining business was in the works, but got derailed by the pandemic.)
“I see uneven stains as something beautiful,” says Lee. “They’re accidents that remind me of how I got there.”
Here, Lee guides us through creating your very own naturally dyed
garment with colouring made out of foods such as onion skin, coffee, tea, turmeric, red cabbage or avocado skin.
Note: It will only work on clothes crafted from natural fabrics (think cotton, hemp, silk – anything without synthetics).
1. A piece of clothing made of a natural fibre
2. Any of the above food ingredients (In this case, we’re using onion peel – enough to make up 20 per cent of the weight of the garment. If using turmeric, an amount weighing the equivalent of 10 per cent of the garment suffices and when working with tea, go with the ratio of 10 tea bags to one T-shirt or 1m of fabric)
3. A pot that won’t be used for cooking food that one consumes
4. Rubber gloves
5. Apron
6. Soap
7. Alum measuring 15 per cent of the garment’s weight, easily found at baking supply stores
8. Washcloth
1. Ensure that you are doing the dyeing process in a clean, well-ventilated space.
2. To clean the garment, fill a pot with enough water to completely submerge it. Add the garment into the pot and heat gradually, adding a bit of mild soap.
3. Simmer for an hour then remove the garment and rinse it thoroughly
4. Fill a pot (you can use the same one) with warm water then dissolve the alum in it. This will help prepare the fabric to take on dye – a process known as mordanting.
5. Push the garment into the pot, bring it to a boil then lower the heat and let simmer for another hour.
6. Once the pot has cooled down, remove the fabric and blot all over gently with a washcloth to remove as much excess water as possible.
7. Refill the pot with just enough water to fully submerge the garment.
8. Add food materials into the pot, bring to a boil, then let simmer on low heat for an hour.
9. Strain the mixture to remove the food materials. This forms the dye.
10.Put on the gloves then place the fabric into the dye gently, leaving to simmer for an hour over heat. For best results, turn off the heat after and leave overnight.
A version of this article first appeared in FEMALE‘s June 2021 Fashion Activity Book