Teams
Start Date:
21.10.2025
Start Time:
16:00
End Date:
21.10.2025
21.10 16.00
Riikka Räisanen (Professor, University of Helsinki, Colour4CRAFTS consortium leader)
“From Tradition to the future: Chemistry behind natural Colour Palette” (In English, online)
Societies are stretching towards greater sustainability and textile colouration has been in discussion as it is one of the industries which uses vast amounts of energy and water resources and pollutes environment through poor control of colouration processes. Also, the aim to pull away from fossil resources has driven research to studies of natural and bio-based solutions in materials and dyeing. Before the mid 19th century, and the revolution of colour chemistry designing synthetic dyes, natural sources offered the only colourants in use. Currently natural dyes have become more popular among designers and craft practitioners. In my lecture I will showcase some of the recent research done in the area of bio-based colourants and novel solutions how to apply them in different materials and final products. Focus is especially laid in proceedings of the EU-Horizon funded Colour4CRAFTS project and its multidisciplinary teams which include researchers from archaeology, history, textile technology and craft, chemistry, design and futures studies.
Riikka Räisanen, University of Helsinki, Professor. Riikka Räisänen is a professor in craft science and craft pedagogy in the University of Helsinki. Her background is in chemistry and natural sciences, craft studies and education. She has over twenty years of experience in research of natural colourants and textiles, and has published numerous articles and books on the topic. In 2016 she was awarded with the Silver Medal of the Society of Dyers and Colourists (UK) for the research in the field of natural colourants. She is the Colour4CRAFTS consortium leader.
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The lecture is part of a series “Textile Dyes of the Past and Future: sharing the Colour4CRAFTS Experience” begins, initiated by the EU Horizon project Colour4CRAFTS.
The webinar series brings together EU Horizon project Colour4CRAFTS members and important guests to discuss and share their knowledge on textile dyes of the past and future. The series is brought together by the University of Tartu and Viljandi Culture Academy in collaboration with the Estonian Academy of Arts.
EU Horizon project Colour4CRAFTS combines a multidisciplinary team of experts from research institutes and R&D companies to carry out studies of bio-based textile colouration in traditional historic perspective and in combination with cutting-edge technologies of colourants biosynthesis and waterless applications techniques. Colour4CRAFTS members are the University of Helsinki, University of Lapland, University of Tartu, KIK-IRPA, University of Leeds and PILI Bio.