Ana Albano Serrano is a researcher, educator and specialist in historical conservation whose work focuses on understanding color through chemistry, history and material practice. In her past research it particularly focused on the color red. Her path into dye research often feels, in retrospect, almost inevitable. While initially engaging with painting and visual art during her studies, she gradually realized that textiles offered a richer and more complex relationship to color. During her academic training, her thesis supervisor introduced her to dye research, with a particular emphasis on insect-based dyes. This encounter marked a decisive shift in her trajectory.
From the beginning, Ana was less interested in becoming a painting conservator in the traditional sense. Instead, she wanted to understand how color actually functions within paintings, chemically, materially, and historically. During her PhD, this interest deepened into a rigorous investigation of dye chemistry and historical recipes. She became especially engaged with the challenge of reproducing historical dye processes, discovering that written recipes often leave out crucial information. Subtle factors such as water composition, the material of the dye pot, temperature, or environmental conditions which can radically alter outcomes.
Much of Ana’s research involves searching for dye recipes in archaeological reports, historical research journals, and medieval manuscripts. When modern descriptions failed to produce the expected results, she traced processes back to their earliest sources. This led her to experiment with parameters that are rarely controlled in contemporary laboratories. In one case, she collected water from a lake rich in bird droppings, echoing historical instructions that specified the use of flowing canal water. She tested iron pots, rainwater, seawater, turmeric, salt, and fermented dye baths, discovering that these overlooked variables often explain discrepancies between theory and practice.
Rather than strictly following single recipes, Ana works comparatively. She studies multiple historical sources, combines them, and tests variations side by side. This method reflects her belief that many historical recipes were written with assumptions, shared cultural knowledge that no longer exists. Reconstructing dye processes, therefore, requires both analytical tools and interpretive thinking. Techniques such as liquid chromatography allow her to identify dye components and better understand how colors were originally achieved and why they age, or resist aging, over time.
Ana sees her work as part of a broader effort to recover and reactivate lost knowledge. She is particularly interested in how historical dye practices managed resources. While waste certainly existed, materials were often reused, dye baths kept active for long periods, by-products repurposed, and textiles continuously re-dyed. Objects were not static; they remained in use.
As an educator, Ana is deeply committed to raising awareness around textiles, color, and waste. She encourages students to work directly with historical sources rather than relying on modern summaries, and she emphasizes critical questioning and collaboration across disciplines. She believes that understanding color, both for preservation and for interpreting artworks, can also help reconnect society to material responsibility.
Alongside her research, Ana is increasingly interested in sharing knowledge through workshops, allowing others to experience historical dye processes firsthand. She continues to explore specific colors, including reds from madder and insects, purples, safflower pinks, and darker tones such as logwood-based blues and blacks. She also works with non-invasive analytical tools, including UV light, which can reveal differences in dyes invisible to the naked eye and help compare materials without damaging them.
Through her work, Ana Albanoserrano brings together past and present, combining chemistry, history, and hands-on experimentation to make historical color knowledge relevant for contemporary research, education, and society at large!