Reconstruction and revival of traditional manufacturing processes of natural organic colouring materials.

Traditional technologies-recipes for producing natural dyes and for colouring substrates common in the Mediterranean cultural environment – such as textile, paper and paintings – will be reconstructed taking into account the relevant trans-national traditions. The procedure will involve: (i) Control of the steps of extraction, filtration, concentration and drying of the extracted colouring matter from corresponding sources. (ii) Control of the purity and the colour strength through the use of physicochemical methodology, e.g. evaluation and control of the parameters that have an impact on the physical and chemical properties of the dyes. (iii) Application of the dyes and derived organic pigments on several substrates – e.g. textile, paper and paintings – for the creation of “model” artefacts and subsequent evaluation in terms of colour strength and quality. (iv) Artificial ageing of the “model” art objects and evaluation of the possible deterioration of the pigments, upon colour evaluation and chemical analysis.

Sub-objective 2-1: The interrelation between physicochemical conditions and the efficiency of dyeing will lead to the optimisation and standardization of application techniques and the dye production processes. Optimisation and standardization of the whole procedure will be performed in terms of reproducibility, colour strength and fastness. The standardization will allow concrete proposals concerning (i) the quality of the dyeing material and any further necessary ingredients (ii) the experimental preparation of the dye (iii) the conditions and mordant necessary for an optimal application of the dye and (iv) the preservation of the artwork / artefact.

Sub-objective 2-2: The conclusions of this objective will be compared with the corresponding results obtained by “real” art objects. This will lead to a more meticulous analysis of the colouring components used in the samples and a better understanding of the ancient dying techniques.