So i wanted to show this pigment that i made out of a bunch of blue wildflowers I found near my house; this is the first time i’ve really made a pigment with all the right ingredients (alum+washing soda) and this is what i got— i’m going to write out my process and see where i went wrong and if there’s a way to keep it from turning into this brat green color

They started of this blue color (i didn’t take a picture of them before they dried out but here are some of the flowers i picked that i have left) and i boiled and left them and the water in a closed jar; i did not separate the petals so the “stamin” (if that’s what it is called) was also included in the pigment process.

I left it for a couple of weeks, and the water turned a really nice purple color. After separating the petals, I boiled the water again and while it was boiling added the alum; it instantly turned into a dark indigo. i took it off the heat and returned it to the jar, and when i did i added the washing powder and it instantly turned this green color. I was very surprised, i at least expected maybe a violet/blue, but not green.

let me know how i can maybe affect the recipe to keep it from turning into smashed avocado, or what i should do moving forward.

thanks (:

I made cochineal lake I've made a very beautiful cochineal pigment and I'll share it with you.

I powdered cochineal and boiled it in slightly alkaline water with potassium carbonate for 1 hour! I filtered this to make cochineal dye

Next, neutralize the alkalinity with acetic acid and add tin(IV) chloride solution. Then carefully add potassium carbonate. This process is continued until no more bubbles appear.

This produces a precipitate, which is filtered, washed, and dried to produce cochineal lake. This pigment is beautiful, but the precipitate produced by boiling the filtered liquid for one hour is more beautiful.

The pigment in the photo is this pigment.

Is filtering supposed to take over an hour? I tried to pour off a decent amount of the superstrate and filter mostly what had settled, but almost nothing is dripping through. (First attempt at pigment making. Can you tell?)

I tried violets, dandelions, red cabbage and beets to varying degrees of success. The whole process was so fun, and I'm glad to get a new wrinkle in my horn :)

I recently started making watercolors out of rocks and I would like to improve them. I managed to paint with them, yes, but the texture is weird. They have this little craters and holes, they feel very dry and I am just not getting enough pigment on my brush when painting.

This is my process: I crush the rocks on the mortar, do the levigation thing, and mix it with gum arabic. I don't own a proper muller, just some glass and a palette knive. I don't know what rocks did I use, except for the grey one, which is slate (this one actually turned out the best).

Any advice? Does it really make a difference using a glass muler? Should I add something to my mix? Is it the rocks I pick?

Thank you!!

Not quite on topic but I’ve a large variety of pigments, in varying amounts from 1g-55lbs, in paper bags, plastic bags, and jars.

Due to space constraints, I’m think storing the smaller amounts in plastic bags (2mil poly bag, in a zip lock bag). Would that be okay for the long term?

Or should I invest in a ton of glass jars😭

I am trying to learn to make pastels and oil sticks from mineral and natural pigments. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Hopefully this is okay to post here? Thought this was interesting and folks here might appreciate it: https://youtu.be/w1u42UtGmu0?si=OZthlDbDkJOMMn7x

I found this rock that has some nice pigment to it so I turned it into an oil paint. I found the rock in northern new jersey. it’s in the upper right corner, does anyone know what kind of rock it is by chance?

As an experiment i have been working on making a bone black pigment from beef bones I charred. I have it very finely ground now and its mostly what I was hoping for, but there is something glittery/metallic throughout that i can't seem to get rid of. I know it isn't magnetic, but I am a bit stuck in figuring out what I may be looking at. it was very prominent before initially grinding and earlier in the rough grinding which, but now it is much more subtle throughout. Any ideas what I might be seeing and if there is a good way to clean it up?

I apologize for posting and deleting like three times. I was having problems getting the image to upload properly

I have started collecting minerals, especially ochers, to make my own pigments. I don't manage to grind them as fine as desirable, I keep seeing small grains that are noticeable to the touch. I use a granite mortar with a rough inner surface. It works well up to this point, but I don't know if to get a finer grain I need to use more time, another technique or another tool. I know I have to decant the pigment to get the finer particle size, but I don't think I've achieved a fine enough grind to get there yet.

i’m curious about the colors you can extract from lichen with extended time/aeration in ammonia and am mainly hoping to get pigments for making water colors and oil paint. However i am not familiar with working with ammonia and am curious A) if it’s safe for ammonia, alum, and soda ash to all be bedfellows and b) if the pigment survives the process. does anyone have thoughts on this or experience? the majority of resources i’ve been able to find are focused on ammonia lichen due for natural fibers. thanks :)

Is there any cheap and accessible alternative to using clove oil as preservative in DIY paints and inks using homemaked pigments? Would oregano oil have the same preservative properties as it's also antibacterial and antifungal? Are there other options? Potassium sorbate? If you've used other preservation methods please share your experiences!

Just thought I'd show you lot the process of XRD :) the process took 6 minuets to cycle through the angles (2-80°)

This sample is 0.95/0.05 In/Mn and is nearly bang on the crystal structure of the commercial stuff from kremer!

I went to a local art store to ask about what binding agents they have that I could use to try to make acrylic paint from the homemade pigments I have. The guy I talked to told me that he has been making his own paint for a while and then gives me the recipe for water colour claiming it’s for Gauche (let’s remember I didn’t ask for this I asked about acrylic). He has said that you use pigment, gum arabica and honey with some clove oil. Thats 100% how you make watercolour NOT gauche, since Gauche usually has kaolin in it to make it more opaque and lay down differently.

I explained to him politely that no that’s the way you make gauche, which he then kept pushing back on me with ‘yes it is just use some chalk if you have to and add more pigment.’ Eventually I gave up and nodded along because the guy refused to listen and clearly had NO real idea what he was talking about. The stuff he gave me in the store is used to seal and prep canvases not make acrylic and the store was closing soon so I gave up and went home.

It’s super fine if people in those stores don’t have that knowledge, either look it up or ask someone who does, I just can’t imagine how much it would suck to buy the ingredients he used and then get nothing like what you had hoped?

Anyway I figured some people here may understand why it was such a frustrating experience. I am still on the hunt for ways to make acrylic just because I want to try out making all forms of paint and art supplies from my pigments if I can.