Something can not be birthed from nothing, and nothing truly disappears. Every cause has an effect. Matter cannot be created, nor destroyed. These are simply the rules of life.
Using animal materials is not a crime. Waste is.
Thousands of years ago, dating back far before history, bone had a curious application. Outside of solely being the remains from a meal, it became pigment. Carbon birthed from bone, applied to cave walls, scattering the tombs and wall paintings of Ancient Egypt, dancing within frescos applied by the Greeks and Romans. When ground up finely, it became cherished and used liberally with notable painters such as Rembrant, Caravaggio, Da Vinci and Goya, to name a few.
Readily available, from the ashes of the fire.
We`re no strangers to experimenting with the materials around us, having made it this far. As such, it`s unsurprisingly one of the oldest pigments humans have used.
The process of creating Bone Black boils down to carbon, the process of heating animal bones within an oxygen depleted environment, a process called “calcination”. The pigment has a gritty texture, and yields excellent lightfastness (how fast the color degrades under light).
To work with bone is to acknowledge what was given. If a life ends, an ethical response is to let nothing be wasted, and to do right by what was lost.
In this application, to create the color of darkness.
Calcination, the first stage of spiritual Alchemy, otherwise known as the black stage, represents chaos. Reclusive, buried within the subconscious, hidden in the folds. In a spiritual sense, the burning of matter, evolving to ash signified the dissolving of worldly attachments. Sometimes symbolizing the death of what does not serve the self, carving the path for self awakening. The creeping in of possibility.
Artists of the Middle Ages believed ivory black (a specific pigment made exclusively from elephant tusks) could ward off evil. Seen as a color of evil magics and darkness. Sometimes viewed as wealth, a sign of status and power. A color worn by Italian bankers to assert status. Linked to mourning, of grief.
Black.
The color of the shadows, the expanse, death. Made of bone, from life, scorched by flame. A perfect balance of life and death. A clean slate of self.
The unknown.
The potential.
For tens of thousands of years, bone has been one of humanity’s earliest materials. It was carved into tools, needles, buttons, combs, talismans, instruments, weapons, and ritual objects. Long before ornament was decorative, it was functional, spiritual, and intimate. Bone held memory. It outlasted flesh.
It carried a story.
Bone black lingers inside this long continuity.
The modern fashion system is largely built to sever materials from their origins. Plastic imitates leather. Synthetic dye replaces earth and ash. An unnatural speed is mistaken for progress. The industry now produces nearly double what it did fifteen years ago, generating massive pollution, microplastics, and human cost along the way. This is not innovation. It is a forgetting of our roots.
Bone does not allow for forgetting.
Historically, bone existed within a closed cycle. Animals were raised, hunted, eaten. Nothing was symbolic of excess. Flesh became food. Fat became tallow for candles, soap. Hides became leather. Sinew became thread. Bones became tools, pigments, jewelry, ash. Survival and the cycle intertwined together.
Bone black, the pigment, emerged from this logic. It was made slowly, deliberately, from what remained.
Bone Black carries that same ethic into contemporary form, existing at this intersection of past and future.
The crossroads of life and death, part of the cycle.
It is an exploration of how luxury once functioned. Not as excess, but as care. Not as volume, but as longevity. Bone was never cheap because it required time, skill, and respect. We once understood this.
To wear a record, a tale from past, a relic from a lost life. Of nourishment. Of labor. Of transformation. Belonging to a new story, a telling of time lost. It is not part of mass replication.
Bone Black is not about death. It is about continuity.
In an industry addicted to producing more, faster, cheaper, the materials from our world need to be utilized. Once again honoring the full arc of a material’s life; remembering that nothing comes from nothing, and nothing truly disappears.
We cannot avoid treading on the earth. But we can choose materials that remember how to return.
Bone has always known how.
We are currently experimenting with Bone Black, culled from the remains of past projects with bones and food scraps. Testing ways to utilize this ancient pigment in a modern context. Updates from The Labs will soon follow.
-Lost
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