The textile industry’s reliance on synthetic dyes has raised growing concern about the environmental and human health impacts of petrochemical
colour. In response, bio-informed colouration has emerged as a key area of sustainable textile colouration practice, integrating biological processes, living organisms and natural materials as alternatives to petrochemical colouration. These practices extend longstanding relationships between colour and the natural world, while also raising ethical questions about how living systems are responsibly drawn upon within material practice. This practice-led research is positioned within cross-disciplinary bioinformed colouration, focusing on artists, designers, biologists and chemists whose practices move across design and science methods, processes and spaces. Through an ethico-onto-epistemological lens, the study explored the lived experiences of practitioners navigating the ethical use of living systems in biocolour. The findings suggest that bio-informed colouration practitioners consistently transition between context, positions, spaces, methods and processes within and across projects, indicating that ethical decision-making is shaped by changing practice identity positions. The research contributes a Theory-Methods-Ethics Package that brings together conceptual frameworks and modular ethical considerations. It is intended to support ethical decision-making in action by offering adaptable guidance for art and design practitioners and educators seeking to explore ethical understanding when working with living systems as colour materials.