Color is Alive — Handmade natural inks & organic screen printing
(2021)
Color is Alive is a project by Greta D. Facchinato that explores how to adapt natural ink-making for screen printing. Conventional printing inks are typically made with refined mineral oil and chemicals that are harmful to both humans and the environment. These toxic substances enter our bodies, wastewater, and ultimately the ecosystem. In 2021, with the collaboration of Grafische Werkplaats Den Haag and the support of Gemeente Den Haag, Facchinato researched how to extract color from the natural world, transforming it into sustainable inks suitable for screen printing on paper and fabric. The outcomes were shared in the exhibition Color is Alive, featuring a series of prints on paper and textiles, alongside an artist publication.
The project involved developing a growing collection of natural inks made from foraged plants, urban relics, and kitchen scraps. The research was conducted in parallel with Facchinato’s practice of foraging in nature, focusing on plants native to Dutch and Italian territories. The artist aims to reawaken our connection to color through the landscape that surrounds us, encouraging a rethinking of art conservation and challenging the concept of artwork as eternal. By working with bio-based ink, which is composed of organic living matter, each ink is influenced by nature’s cycles and habitats, leading to unique, evolving color properties.
This project invites a shift in perspective, understanding color as a living entity, subject to the same cycles of life and death that affect all natural materials.
Credits:
Project and Research by: Greta Desirèe Facchinato in collaboration with: Grafische Werkplaats Den Haag.
Made possible by Gemeente Den Haag.
Exhibition: Color is Alive, shared during Hoogtij#67 at Grafische Werkplaats Den Haag.