Die Rote IRis (Here Be Dragons) : topic:vegetable paint

Instant elderberry sap

Die Rote IRis — 2012-09-19T18:44:00Z

While unpacking one of the last boxes (there are still n+1 left (n beeing the number of boxes I know about) I came upon a jar of dried elderberry sap.

On an sudden impulse I filled it up with water and a few moments later:

After a couple of hours and some vigorous shaking I had a whole bottle of elderberry sap.

I pomptly heated it up and put in some hydrous clay.
The result looked something like blueberry youghurt:

And after a few days the thing was totally dry - and looked like some lavender miniature of a dead, sunbaked desert. (I had a great picture for you - but I lost it. Shame on me)
And it behaved exactly like rock. Meaning: I could do nothing. Absolutely nothing.

As a last resort I added again some water and put it to dry, not in a saucer, but as a thin layer on a plastic bag.
The future remains exiting!

Guess what?

Die Rote IRis — 2012-09-17T18:50:00Z

puff

Die Rote IRis — 2012-09-05T19:09:00Z

Let me tell you something about goldenrod.

Its amazing! I put it in a pot, added a bit of water and some alum, and: puff!

YELLOW

Im doing shell-paint at the moment and later it will be pigments again. Havent decided about which method to use but it looks promising.
More promising than the sunflowers ever did.

By the way ...

Die Rote IRis — 2012-09-02T12:50:00Z

... thats the result of the sunflower paint experiment:

Its a pale, soft yellow, nearly white. I will try to make some watercolour, but Im not optimistic about the outcome

Not really mortar and pestle

Die Rote IRis — 2012-08-31T16:34:00Z

... but pestle and a glass slab.

Ive made a rule out of using the things I already have and not buying anything new. So far its working fine.

Here you can see whats become of the geranium-tomato sauce:

I grind it with said slab and pestle,

making fine pigments which are alarmingly whitish.

But after mixing them with water and gum arabic they turn dark again and end up beeing a dark, burgundy red colour (wich I will show you some other time.)

The painting experience is a bit like painting with what in germany is called 'Wasserfarben' - you have to stir a bit to get some paint on your brush.

Thats why I love 'Altweibersommer'

Die Rote IRis — 2012-08-30T15:04:00Z

It makes me do things. Not only want-to but actually do-do.

Last weekend, sitting under a linden tree, I started collecting the seed vessels and now Im going to stick pins into them to be able to thread them on a string later.
Im in jewellery mode again.

And yesterday I went to not only fix my saddle but also to collect some goldenrod and elderberrys, so now its vegetable colour again too.

Like its a piece of Aglarond

Die Rote IRis — 2012-08-18T18:29:00Z

Do you see this?
The geranium sap shell (gss) is all crystal like a pretty little geode.

I took a lot of pictures, and you have to watch them ALL!

Do you know whats great?

It dissolves really easy in water.

Making it very easy to soak up paint with a brush and ... well paint.

OK, there are just five pictures but I like them.

The squirrel gene

Die Rote IRis — 2012-08-11T13:01:00Z

Guess what! Im still collecting flowers (and other stuff) for further experiments.

Sunflowers

Die Rote IRis — 2012-08-04T17:38:00Z

A bunch of sunflowers.

The petals of a bunch of sunflowers in a pot.

The petals of a bunch of sunflowers with water and alum in a pot cooking slowly.

The petals of a bunch of sunflowers with water and alum in a pot cooking slowly, giving only marginal colour.

The petals of a bunch of sunflowers with water and alum in a pot, giving a bit more colour after more cooking.

The sap of a bunch of sunflowers after much cooking and adding some hydrous clay

The hydrous clay sap of a bunch of sunflowers after much cooking and dehydrating.

The dried hydrous clay sap of a bunch of sunflowers wayting for me to find me mortar and pestle.

Geranium pt. 3

Die Rote IRis — 2012-07-24T17:56:00Z

Did I mention me beeing impatient!?!

The geranium stuff is still not finished.
As you can see, it dwindled, but ...

... still too much water.

So I brought it againt to the boil and led it reduce a bit. (As much as I dared)

Now it sits in a smal glass bowl looking like tomato sauce.

Whats next?

Geranium pt. 2

Die Rote IRis — 2012-07-20T18:14:00Z

I told you about the red geranium paint I brewed.

After the shell experience there were about 100-150 ml of the stuff still to go.

I put it back in the pot (including the crystals at the bottom) and let it boil (the crysals dissolved rather quickly). Then I added 2 teaspoons of aluminium hydroxide, also known as hydrous clay (Tonerdehydrat). The clay is supposed to absorb the red dye.

Which it did, I think.

Now all of the water has to go.
For four days now the stuff is standing in a water bath. The first day went pretty well, I was at home all the time and could regulate the heat.
Now Im working again and there are only the evenings to heat the water.

Im to impatient for this kind of stuff!

coming home

Die Rote IRis — 2012-07-16T17:55:00Z

After a weekend of beeing away from reality, having fun, making plans and not beeing trown out of the ICE-train, Ive returned home to find my geranium shell - which was well-filled when I left - looking like this:

Its hardly surprising, considering that the plant sap consists of 99,9% water ...

Neither its completely dried.

I think I could sink all the sap in the shell - but I wont!
Instead I will use the rest for the pigment.

Wish me luck!

Geranium

Die Rote IRis — 2012-07-09T12:54:00Z

Fortune favoered me with some spare time last weekend. And so - with my boyfriend busying himself with bike preparations - I took my chances and a box of dried geranium flowers and started another attempt at producing paint.

As usual the flowers were cooked in an alum solution.
The crystals disolved rather quickly in the hot water. (I used about 15 teespoons and about 300 ml of water)
After adding the flowers it looked like this:

After 15 minutes of cooking.
At the surface there happend some crystalisation each time I stopped stirring.

And indeed there water was red:

I put the whole bulk in a jar ...

... and then sifted it.
The result was a jar full of red sap colour with a layer of crystal at the bottom.

And now for the really interesting part:
When painted it looks like this

The darker stain glitters!
Its the same effect as with the elderberry batch.
The book does not mention this - I think its some of the remaining alum crystalising.
Glitzy!

I already started drying some of it in a shell, and I plan another attempt at producing some pigment - using a different method this time.

Return to ocre

Die Rote IRis — 2012-05-21T08:50:00Z

Its time for me to tell you what I did with all the apple-bark-paint-sites I was working on ...

First for the sap.
You may remember this yellowish looks-like-egg-paint glas?

First of all I actually made some "Glue-size" from it. I took a small strip of white linen and soaked it in the sap. After letting it go dry I repeated the process. And again. And ...
I dont remember exactly how often I did this, but I think it was about five times ...

Now it looks this:

If soaked in water the paint should liquidate and be paintable againt. So much for theory, the practice is jet to come ...

After this process there was still a lot of sap to go, so I poured it in another shell to let it go dry.

This is the sappy-sap,

and this ist the dried-sap.

Its still very easy dissolvable and when painted still looks like this:

Next time wil be about the pigments.

Its almost, but not quite, entirely unlike yellow

Die Rote IRis — 2012-03-31T12:26:00Z

I think Ive made some pigments. May as well be dirt, Im not sure.

Remember the colour-sap?
I carefully added a few teaspoons of soda-water (sodium carbonate and water) to the sap. The Book said to use only a few drops but I ended using up about half a cup.
The sap begun to foam, which it should.
After vigorous stirring, the foam was sifted through a thin cloth.
A layer of ... foamy, muddy, greasy stuff remained and was stored in the sun to dry.

Now it looks like this, and it should be pigment.
Also it should be yellow.

I dont know about you, but Im not really impressed.
Nevertheless I will consult The Book and try to make watercolours out of it. One can never have enough ochre.

The remaining liquid seems to be also a kind of ochre.

and when painted and dried looks like this:

I dont know what to do with it.
Maybe Ill add some gum arabic to make ink.
Or Ill concentrate it further to make these shell-thingies again.
Or I soak some tissue to make "Glue-size" (the german term is "Tüchleinfarbe")
Or ...
So much possibilities!
What do you thing?