Creating colours from garbage

Ummi Junid is a batik artist and graduate in design and textiles who loves to push the envelope beyond the usual industrial model of solid waste.

Her focus at the moment is the Kuala Lumpur Colour's District, a project that uses food or by-product waste to produce and explore natural colours through the process of creating natural pigments and dyes.

Even items like onion skins that are normally thrown away without a second thought can be turned into beautiful and natural dyes.

Ummi Junid spends much of her time meeting with traders to collect and save food waste from the garbage.

She separates and dries her collection at her studio in Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan.

The leaves, flowers and plant skins are soaked for hours to extract their natural pigments.

Once the colour is extracted, Ummi Junid uses the water to dye white cloth which is then hung up to dry.

The colours she gets depend on the plant material she has to work with.

After the fabric dries, Ummi Junid begins the printing process which also uses natural dyes.

Ummi Junid enjoys letting her creativity roam free.

Every piece she creates is different. Some allude to the place where she obtained the waste with which she began.

This piece, for example, was crafted from waste collected around Petaling Street in Kuala Lumpur.

Her creations are hung up for exhibition at the Chow Kit market in the capital city.

Ummi Junid explains the concept and process of her work to a visitor.

Her exhibition is accompanied by a sign which shows how much waste she collected in order to create these works of art.

Samples of the natural colour she creates are laid out as well.

An Alam Flora worker pauses to admire her work.

Ummi Junid smiles in satisfaction at a job well done.