From plants to printers
Basic information
Project Title
From plants to printers
Category
Shaping a circular industrial ecosystem and supporting life-cycle thinking
Project Description
Hundreds of varieties of plants grow all around us. Some of them have pigments in their genes. In the past, they were used as the primary sources of colour for painting and writing. The techniques used to make them have been forgotten. From plants to printers is a printing research project that aims to revive this knowledge by harvesting dye plants from forests, gardens and food waste, extracting their pigments and creating inks that have a positive environmental impact on the printing world.
Geographical Scope
Regional
Project Region
Occitanie, France
Urban or rural issues
It addresses urban-rural linkages
Physical or other transformations
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
EU Programme or fund
No
Description of the project
Summary
From plants to printers is a project to develop a printing studio using inks made from organic matter collected in a sustainable way (so-called «invasive» plants, food waste, wilted flowers), in order to offer a printing service without harmful products. A printing studio that is independent at every stage: collection of dye plants, processing, creation of inks, printing of posters, books and flyers.
The inks resulting from this process can be applied to paper and fabric using screen printing techniques, stamps or simply brushes. But can vegetal inks be used in printers to print on a larger scale?
For over a year I’ve been researching how to insert natural inks into a printer to find an alternative to the current energy-hungry printing techniques.
The inks are manufactured according to a precise protocol. Take the time to wait for the plants to ripen. For example, ivy berries are mature in February, as are mimosa flowers; madder roots are better left until autumn. Plants have their own seasons, which should be respected. They then need to be dried, an important and more or less complex process depending on the type of plant, weighed and boiled, and minerals added depending on the colour you require. The solution has to be filtered, the water sinks and the pigments dry at the bottom of the fabric. By making these inks, I want to take the time to let the flowers appear or not, and if next year there are no wild carrots, we’ll print projects with other colours.
The inks resulting from this process can be applied to paper and fabric using screen printing techniques, stamps or simply brushes. But can vegetal inks be used in printers to print on a larger scale?
For over a year I’ve been researching how to insert natural inks into a printer to find an alternative to the current energy-hungry printing techniques.
The inks are manufactured according to a precise protocol. Take the time to wait for the plants to ripen. For example, ivy berries are mature in February, as are mimosa flowers; madder roots are better left until autumn. Plants have their own seasons, which should be respected. They then need to be dried, an important and more or less complex process depending on the type of plant, weighed and boiled, and minerals added depending on the colour you require. The solution has to be filtered, the water sinks and the pigments dry at the bottom of the fabric. By making these inks, I want to take the time to let the flowers appear or not, and if next year there are no wild carrots, we’ll print projects with other colours.
Key objectives for sustainability
The pigments needed to create printing inks come from plants that are present in large quantities, wilted flowers from the gardens, bark salvaged from trees that have been cut back or fallen over because of bad weather, and food waste from local canteens. In order to discover and enhance the value of the area and its waste, I’m not planning to start growing dye plants, as there are already many plants that grow by themselves without human intervention, and many others that need to be reused before being composted. The water used to boil the plants comes from the well next to the studio and from rainwater collectors. The water is then recuperated during the filtration process and can be reused and recycled. After extracting the pigments from the plants during cooking, the plants used are then composted.
The printing industry is full of toxic products such as petroleum solvents, which are present in large quantities in most printer inks, and industrial pigments that are harmful to workers and the environment. What’s more, the printing industry produces a large number of works printed with noxious inks that are often not biodegradable or can be recycled. Whether it’s a flyer, a photograph, a newspaper, a payslip, a festival poster or a book, they’re all printed with synthetic inks and pigments and most of them have a short lifespan.
The printing industry is full of toxic products such as petroleum solvents, which are present in large quantities in most printer inks, and industrial pigments that are harmful to workers and the environment. What’s more, the printing industry produces a large number of works printed with noxious inks that are often not biodegradable or can be recycled. Whether it’s a flyer, a photograph, a newspaper, a payslip, a festival poster or a book, they’re all printed with synthetic inks and pigments and most of them have a short lifespan.
Key objectives for aesthetics and quality
Making printing inks from the natural world means finding the right plant for the colours you want to print, which means collecting the right quantity of plants, no more and no less, depending on the project. What’s more, with vegetable inks you can obtain colours that are more or less opaque, with varying shades. What I find interesting is the irregularity of the results, which always allows for a form of experimentation and often holds surprises in store.
Playing with unstable colours creates a new kind of printing experience, where colours are superimposed to create new ones. The world of printing is very often unsurprising. Vegetal prints trigger a kind of beauty of randomness, of the unexpected, inviting a new, more sober approach to the world of printing. A sobriety of colour, aesthetics and materials related to its manufacture.
Playing with unstable colours creates a new kind of printing experience, where colours are superimposed to create new ones. The world of printing is very often unsurprising. Vegetal prints trigger a kind of beauty of randomness, of the unexpected, inviting a new, more sober approach to the world of printing. A sobriety of colour, aesthetics and materials related to its manufacture.
Key objectives for inclusion
- Transmission : to share this knowledge so that everyone can make the most of it, rather than using it to produce a synthetic product.
- Sharing : inviting young and old to play with plants and discover the wonderful colours they contain.
- Collaboration: working with local organisations such as local school cafeterias and farmers to recuperate and re-use some of their food waste.
- Accessible to as many people as possible: recycling these plants contributes to obtaining an economic raw material and offering a printing structure at an attractive price, as well as being non-toxic.
- Sharing : inviting young and old to play with plants and discover the wonderful colours they contain.
- Collaboration: working with local organisations such as local school cafeterias and farmers to recuperate and re-use some of their food waste.
- Accessible to as many people as possible: recycling these plants contributes to obtaining an economic raw material and offering a printing structure at an attractive price, as well as being non-toxic.
How Citizens benefit
The first printing press was created in the middle of the 15th century and revolutionised society. This invention improved the dissemination of ideas and increased the popularisation of knowledge. Numerous printing works were subsequently set up. For some years now, small local printing works working with businesses and local authorities have been abandoned in favour of printing works on the other side of the world. This results in a high carbon footprint due to the transport of prints, in addition to the use of harmful products. The world of printing has gradually lost its local attachment. This decentralisation is caused by ever more affordable prices at the expense of quality. The aim of this project is to revive the local printing industry, working with local businesses and local authorities to add aesthetic and material value to all types of printed documents. It is important to continue to disseminate information at all levels : books, posters and all printed objects are, by their very nature, material goods, so we need to rethink their production so that it is not harmful.
Physical or other transformations
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
Innovative character
To be a printer, you don’t need to know how inks are made, or have any knowledge of botany ; you just need to know how to use printers and how they work. In this project, I’d like to combine all this knowledge to open an independent studio with different working times, meaning finding an organisation where each day is dedicated to a particular activity: gleaning from local communities / processing, making inks / printing projects.
Disciplines/knowledge reflected
From plants to printers requires knowledge of printing, including file creation, page layout and machine operation. In addition, this project requires botanical skills to recognise the plants that are useful for making pigments, as well as knowledge of chemistry to make pigments and inks.
Methodology used
During my training in graphic design at the École Européenne Supérieure d’Art de Bretagne in Rennes, I started by learning how the printing press worked, printing both personal projects and commissions. I became fascinated by the world of printing, with its various techniques that add a finish to a project in the same way as the choice of typography or paper.
To write my final dissertation, I studied the graphic design of the contemporary French ecological struggle. I immersed myself in the history of the ecological struggle in France and across the Atlantic to understand contemporary graphic forms. I also analysed the materials used in each book and how they were printed. As my research progressed, I realised that very few books were printed on recycled paper or FSC or PEFC certified paper, and that very often the inks used were harmful.
So I looked into the problem of inks and started looking for an alternative. A cleaner alternative that uses waste and plants, and aims for environmental and economic sobriety in the printing industry.
To write my final dissertation, I studied the graphic design of the contemporary French ecological struggle. I immersed myself in the history of the ecological struggle in France and across the Atlantic to understand contemporary graphic forms. I also analysed the materials used in each book and how they were printed. As my research progressed, I realised that very few books were printed on recycled paper or FSC or PEFC certified paper, and that very often the inks used were harmful.
So I looked into the problem of inks and started looking for an alternative. A cleaner alternative that uses waste and plants, and aims for environmental and economic sobriety in the printing industry.
How stakeholders are engaged
I would like to involve various local organisations in this project, such as school canteens and village restaurants, by collecting some of their food waste, such as onion peelings, which are very useful for making orange pigments. I would like to set up a system of mutual aid among market gardeners by collecting plants such as dock, a harmful and invasive plant that disrupts harvests. By picking it up, I’m recovering a plant that is precious for its yellow pigments and helping farmers to get rid of these plants.
Global challenges
There are different dye plants for different regions. Sharing knowledge about the manufacture of pigments and inks for printing would enable all countries to find plants that are specific to their region, thereby increasing their autonomy in this sector of activity and finding a solution to disseminate useful information for learning and education in a more affordable way, while reducing the carbon impact of transporting materials.
Learning transferred to other parties
All the elements of this project can be reproduced in other places. I want to share information and knowledge so that manufacturing and botanical skills can be revived to increase non-toxic production in the printing industry.
Keywords
Natural colours
Revalorising knowledge
Collaboration
Eco-design
Degrowth
