Isis di Setificio Paolo Carcano di Como ,
Progetto Comenius
Titolo del Progetto: All Equals at European schools. Lavoro realizzato durante lo scambio con la francia
Asian American Pacific Islander Month DDSD 2024.pptx
Melting colours
1. Comenius Project
“All Equal at European Schools”
13th-17th February 2012
France visits our school
classes involved :2C1-2C2
2. “MELTING COLOURS”
CHEMISTRY LAB WORKSHOP
The final day of the experience of Lycée Stanislas in Como, Setificio, included a workshop in
textile finishing chemistry.
Our students of 2C2 proposed a “dyeing chemical happening” based on their lab experiences in
chemistry: in order to understand principles of chemical equilibrium, kinetics, acids and bases
and so on, they studied what happens when a dyestuff is fixed to a fibre, and how. But, why are
some dyestuffs able to dye cellulose and not polyester, and vice versa?
To show this apparently magic behaviour, they made some experiments with direct dyes,
suitable for cellulose, and with disperse dyes suitable for poly(ethylene terephtalate) - PET, the
chemical name of the most common polyester.
On Thursday morning, every student (and teacher!) of the Alsatian group received a “postcard
from Como” that was expressly designed and weaved for this work, weft in rayon (cellulose)
and warp in PET. It represents a picture of the Camerlata Fountain, with the Baradello Tower far
on the hill, that we saw on our Wednesday bus tour to Milan.
They were asked to choose the colour that they liked for drawing and writings, and another
colour for the background. Then, they had to walk across our “chemical restaurant” to get from
our students the required doses of dyestuff solutions, along with two salt solutions and a
surfactant (“detergent”) emulsion. After completing the dyeing liquor with deionized water, they
inserted the cloth sample and the liquor inside a pressurized godet, and all the godets were
inserted in an infrared automatic dyeing machine that is running a temperature program during
about two and half hours.
When temperature was lowered, they could extract their fabric “postcards”,rinse them and...
look!
After drying, these unique pieces became a souvenir of their days in Como.
3. THE ORIGINAL PICTURE AND ITS CONVERSION
Image information: the original 35 mm
slide(http://twitpic.com/69yg9b) and
its digital post-production are by Sergio
Palazzi,under the “supervision” of2C2
students and of our headmistress Anna
Cornaggia.
Their conversion on an electronic Jacquard
file and subsequent weaving are by our
teachers Lina Graziano and Paola Della Torre,
who are training the students of our Textile
Design course.
Weaving has been done on our most recent
Jacquard looms, that our Alsatian
guests did see during our first visit to
Setificio's laboratories.
4. THE FOUNTAIN IN CAMERLATA SQUARE
Effect directly on the loom with a dark weft on white
warp
