Wild Dot

Let’s masak-masak! Calling out for those interested in forming a subscription-based study group with us! For those who are interested in working with plants for your artmaking, connecting with like-minded folks, getting together to host community events centred around plants, gardening, food and art, do check out the details in the link in our bio 🌱🌊 For those who have already registered your interest from our previous sharing, we will be in touch! 😊 #wilddotsg #naturalpigments #watercoloursg #masskmasak #madeinsingapore #makeink #nature #naturalink #color #inkmaking #madeinsingapore #outdoorlearning

Is your paint palette asking for some TLC? ✨ Good news - if you’ve purchased our paint palettes and they are now looking well-used, you’re welcome back for a refresh. A little care goes a long way, and that wooden paint palette will be back looking renewed, and ready for you to paint more with! 🤝 Cost of renewal for each palette is 15% off the original price 📍 Book an appointment and visit us at our home studio (come see where your paints are made!) 📮 Or send it by mail (at own cost) - we will post it right back to ya refreshed and happy 🤗 DM us if you have any questions! #wilddotsg #naturalpigments #watercoloursg #madeinsingapore #makeink

What would it feel like if some prominent spices in a rendang (a popular dish of meat stewed in coconut milk with spices such as cinnamon, red chilli, star anise, turmeric, lemongrass and kafir limes, just to name a few), were distilled into inks that are also fragrant perfumes? Unfortunately, putting all the scents from the spices together didn’t make it into a rendang dish, but Suria from @cahayaa.kitchen had a pop-up pasar booth together with us, showing everyone the spices and ingredients, such as kerisik (dried shredded coconut), chillis and onions, needed for someone’s next rendang cookout! Next time you enjoy rendang, perhaps you will recognise the aromas of these spices. This was an interesting project that we had the opportunity to curate and experiment with a selection of inks, as part of the opening event celebrations at the Malay Heritage Centre @malayheritage last weekend. Thank you for having us!

With the hot and dry weather, we’ve been working around the studio garden to make sure our plants and soil are prepared against the heat. We have been setting up a new small pond at the front, bringing in different types of small fishes like the mollies, platys and siamese algae eater, into our space. It’s been the most rewarding watching them swim around... Hopefully in the warm days to come, this can also be a small source of additional water for watering, and maybe attract more different types of insects and birds here. So far, we’ve already noticed a damselfly moult (unsure?) which is exciting. We’ve also been diligently mulching thick layers of pruned leaves and branches to help reduce moisture loss from soil.

Cleared trash from the forest with friends from @wildd.sg

A reflection post by Ariel, our Studio Assistant since start of this year, on reciprocal care and healing through studio work. Read more on wilddot.substack.com.

🎟️ thoughtpartner.eco/events BUY A TICKET + ATTEND = 1 ENTRY These brands have kindly sponsored a prize each for our lucky draw, to incentivise people to TAKE ACTION (hence only those who show up are included in the draw!) 🥀 @studio.wilt Studio Wilt avoids excessive packaging material and employ foam-free techniques in our creations. Floral waste is used for dried arrangements and lumen prints as ways to extend their lifespan. 👕 @thefashionpulpit The Fashion Pulpit is a social enterprise that aims to promote environmental education and awareness in the field of fashion. 🎨 @wildd.sg Wild Dot is a botanical ink-making studio work with plants that grow abundantly in Singapore. We nurture a small colour garden to better understand their growth cycles and how to harvest them ethically. The painting kit is designed by @weimannyart 🛁 @roughbeauty.co Rough Beauty is a bath and body brand that hand crafts soaps and bath essentials in Singapore. We welcome you to refill your products at our studio. Join us! Tell your friends!

Exploring one of the many ways to make charcoal. This time, we wrapped our sticks in aluminum foil to let cook. While our wood was slowly burning in the pit, we cooked up some delicious veggie and marinated meats. In one sitting, the fire cooked us food, charcoal, and lime from oyster shells (sharing for another time). Learnings: - to have equal heat along the sticks. This arrangement leads to less compact distribution compared to using a tin can, so uneven burning is easier to occur. - ⁠placement around the fire rather than directly on top. - ⁠melted cheese with portobello mushrooms are the best - ⁠don’t forget about the sticks while eating or we would get ashes. #naturalpigments #charcoal #barbecue #madeinsingapore

Seeing Things Sometimes when one stares too long at palm leaf sheaths…they start to form different shapes. These were impressions of various things that were actualized with mulberry fibres, poured through a mould-and-deckle. #materialexperimentation #fibre #singapore

Hey folks! Just so you know, you may now choose to have these special pouches accompany our wooden palettes 🎨 Made from upcycled cotton by textile artist Adel from @muta.wear , these pouches are now available in different designs, giving offcut fabric a new life. A few of the blue-tinted pieces were also very lightly dipped in Rob and Candy - sexy names for the indigo vats she set up a few months ago. Scroll down our feed if you are curious to see how those vats were prepared. #upcycled #naturalpigments #madeinsingapore

Who knew so many colours were hiding in nature? From discovering earth pigments to creating plant dyes and making brushes from sticks—nature, art, and science all in one hands-on experience. Thank you Wild Dot (@wildd.sg ) for the inspiring workshop!

While we’ve been making pigments with blue pea for a few years now, it still feels like there are so many different ways to explore. The colours from the flowers are sensitive to the environment, such as the pH, temperature and sunlight... while all these different factors make the process less predictable, it is also what makes it feel so different from working with synthetic colours. No two batches are the same. Even when the measurements and steps stay constant, each harvest of flowers can contain slightly different amounts of pigment, which influences the final colour pigment and quality. One of the different ways we’ve been exploring with the colour extraction has been to introduce fermentation into the initial process. Through various mediums such as rice water, ginger bug, and eco enzymes, the colours themselves are coming out in varying shades of greens. It also helps reduce energy required for the extraction, since it does require sometimes hours of simmering the materials. So far, it seems that fermentation coaxes out pigments in a brighter shade of green.. still more trials to be done. Also, we recently discovered that ants have been farming aphids on our blue pea plant in the garden. Sometimes we collect them and feed them to the fish in our pond. They seem to love these juicy snacks. #wilddotsg #naturalpigments #materialresearch #pigmentmaking #madeinsingapore