Tamara Orjola
My name is Tamara Orjola and I am a product designer and researcher. I have graduated with honors from Design Academy Eindhoven in 2016, Wellbeing department. For past 3 years I have been living and working in London, but at this moment I am moving back to The Netherlands.
Throughout my studies and career, I have been dealing with a wide range of social and sustainable issues, which makes my interest and work very diverse. Materials play an important role in my design, as a designer living in the rise of consumerism, growing population and climate change. I nd it very important to understand the global picture, the whole cycle of materials applied. I believe that as a designer, you have a moral obligation to consider the impact of what you are creating. Sustainability, circular economy plays a core value in my thinking!
Material Qualities
Soft / Hard: Consistency can vary from liquid, thick or dry powder depending
on the binder or application.
Shiny / Matte: Surface finish can be matt or shiny.
Smells: Smell of pine needle tea.
Texture: From grainy dry texture to high polish lacquer.
Material Recipe
Material Application
Material Method
2. Transforming it into powder using natural ingredients like salt and soda.
3. Drying
4. Mixing with different mediums
Material Narrative
Pine is one of the most widely distributed trees on the planet. It is also the most common tree species with 45% of growing stock in industrial, man-made forests. There are 600 million pine trees in EU felled each year. Scots pines are the major source of timber, however there is no particular use of pine needles which make up to 20-30% (70-100kg) of total tree mass, around 420 million kilograms of needles are left behind each year.
Pine needle dye is one of the by-products coming from bre extraction. I was interested in developing the closed loop process from bre extraction to be able to utilise all/maximum
resources used. Besides that industrial surface nishes/colourants are very toxic. Textile dyeing waste water is one of the most important source of pollution.
During my research I was interested in extracting the colourant concentrate which could be transformed into powder. Dye concentrate powder could be mixed with di erent natural mediums like casein, gum arabic, oils depending on the application. Pine needle dye could be used as food colouring, fabric dye, timber stain, wall or any other surface paint.