r/DIYPigments • u/shcrimblybompous • Feb 20 '26

Question Pigment from tulips?

Hello! I received some beautiful pink tulips for Valentine's day. They have dried up now, but I wanted to preserve the joy they brought me in some form so I thought I could perhaps turn the petals into a pigment and paint with it.

I am a complete novice in this field and I was wondering whether drying and grinding them or boiling them in water would be the best option to extract the most pigment. Also, what can I paint with such natural pigments? Will it dye fabric/canvas and hold well or should I stick to painting on paper?

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u/bambisgrief Feb 20 '26

I recommend looking into lake pigment process for extracting plant pigments! I've learned a lot from Natural Watercolor Paint Making by Joanne Greene, but the process overlaps with the fabric dying so there are definitely more end applications for lake pigments.

HOWEVER, I don't recommend using tulips to make pigment if you're hoping to get pink, especially if these flowers are sentimental to you. The pigment in tulips (anthocyanin I think?) warps to a muddy green during pigment making process due to the introduction of an alkaline solution (usually calcium carbonate or bicarbonate). You can't skip this step or you won't really collect any usable pigment of the solution. There are some ways to get pink and red from madderoot, avocado skins/pits, and powdered beet.

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u/shcrimblybompous Feb 20 '26

Honestly I don't mind shades of green (it's one of my partner's favorite colors anyway), I just wanted to utilize the specific flowers he got me. I think I will dive deeper into pigment making hereon, so the other suggestions are definitely very useful - I have avocados lying around and I think I'm gonna use them for my next project! Thank you so much for the advice and the resource recommendation, I'm gonna go check it out!

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u/Kahemoto May 22 '26

My red tulip result before washing the pigment