The Upcycled Tree Palette
We were awarded the Good Design Research grant by DesignSingapore Council (DSG) in 2021 to deepen our research into the potential of upcycling plant prunings into paints and artmaking kits that could advance interest in the craft of working with nature creatively.
Our research aims to address the following questions:
1. What pigments can be extracted from common horticultural and wood waste in Singapore?
2. What are the paint quality requirements of our target communities?
3. How can we improve the precision and consistency of the current botanical pigment production process?
We partnered with landscaping company in Singapore to collect horticultural prunings:
With the pigments developed, we tested them out as potential paints for woodwork, and partnered with textile dyers Mai Textile Studio and Lynelle Barrett (IG:@lynelle.of.the.looms) to develop dye samples from the tree material collected.
We designed an outdoor paintmaking kit around some of the trees we grew to be more familiar with through this project. An outdoor paintmaking session with these kits were hosted for around 20 participants to showcase the usability and viability of this prototype.
