Bacteria

Bacteria Dyes

Vienna Textile Lab uses bacteria from nature, which can produce colour. The bacteria originate from aquatic and soil environments.

Today dyestuff is manufactured from petrochemical feedstocks, which account for over 99% of synthetic dyes. Before that, colours were made from minerals, plants or animals. With the discovery of aniline colours and other classes of dye, this method of dyeing have been abandoned widely. Biogenic dyes derived from bacteria, algae and fungi can bring back natural dyes at lower cost and higher performance.

Vienna Textile Lab is working on discovering new dyes, creating new dyeing procedures for biogenic dyes and upscaling the production of the dyes. Different materials such as textiles and yarns are systematically tested. We help designers use new types of materials, methods and concepts in the textile business.

Making process

VTL uses bacteria from nature, which can produce colour. The bacteria originate from aquatic and soil environments and they are non-pathogenic.
Different materials such as textiles and yarns are systematically tested. Samples can be dyed directly with bacteria or with the raw extract of colour from bacteria.

Text submitted by the maker and edited by the Future Materials Bank. For information about reproducing (a part of) this text, please contact the maker.