Team:MADRID UCM HS/Human Practices
Human Practices
Natural ink in societyIntroduction
Nowadays printing is expensive, consumes a lot of energy and cartridges last short and have a high toxicity and environmental impact. STAIN focuses on the manufacture of natural and sustainable inks, or biological inks, which are not currently used due to their high tendency to oxidation. Solving this problem will facilitate the production of natural inks that can be used for printing, graphic arts, dyeing textiles or food industry.
In a world where pollution and contamination are about to have catastrophic and irreversible consequences, humanity needs to start thinking about alternatives to pollutant products. Heading for a more concrete aspect, conventional inks, are in most cases made from many chemical compounds that, if not properly recycled, can contaminate soil or water. In addition, although strict regulations are applied to ink manufacturers, inks can still produce health problems. One of our objectives is to manufacture not only environmentally friendly inks, but also stable pigments, which maintain their original color. The potential of the product is incredibly high, as natural inks could be applied to multiple sectors, such as printing, graphic arts, dyeing textiles or the food industry.
Local survey at hour hosting town
In the development of the project, we asked 100 parents of local schools about their feedback on our inks. The surveys showed that 57% (A) of the parents hadn’t thought about the problems that the inks cause to the environment. Moreover, 98% (B) agreed with the idea of paying more for getting sustainable products.
The results also showed that 99% (C) of the subjects were interested in supporting the manufacture of alternative products that respect the environment. In addition, parents showed a great interest in the creation of non-toxic ecological materials for children’s deliverables such as markers or crayons (D)
One of the drawbacks of natural inks, is that even after applying them an antioxidant treatment, they still change their original color. Surprisingly about 48% (E) of the individuals didn´t care about color stability, accuracy and reliability.
Reading between the lines, data shows that a large quantity of general population did not realise the environmental problems that traditional inks can cause. Consequently, subjects strongly supported the research and creation of products that are ecologically friendly and non-toxic.
These results redefined one of the main goals of our project: Ensure that the inks would only contain non-toxic materials, and that they would be completely environmentally friendly.
Artists drawing with STAIN ink
Santi and Raquel are two professional artists in charge of a prestigious academy in our hosting town, Aranjuez. Their inspiring creativity and great talent have resulted in the production of seven artworks purely done with STAIN natural inks. Thanks to Academia Nuevo Arte our very first inks have been tested. Their feedback made us visualize future applications for our inks and its possibilities.
The feedback
Drawing with these inks was an appealing experience. When the inks were dissolved in water to activate their pigments, the results in the drawings were pale. Although the inks were really concentrated, the amount of pigment that was supplied wasn’t enough to obtain strong colors.
We also tried the pigments using pastel techniques and charcoal which gave even better results thanks to their ductility and smoothness.This results were convincing in dry techniques due to the dim appearance that they get after drying.
The stability of the colors through time couldn’t be tested due to the lack of time but, although we were able to obtain good results with this organic inks, we can conclude that there is still a lack of work in developing the color saturation.
