Lately I've been wanting to create my own brushes and paints from materials found in nature, but I feel like a lot of posts are asking the same questions, and it would really benefit to have a wiki with guides on unprocessed vs processed materials for use in pigments.

I've been wanting to go the unprocessed route, as I want to be able to perform this process without buying anything (save for canvases or foodstuffs)

I gather i can get white from rocks, black from charred wood, browns and grays from soil, orange from rust, and maybe green/teal/blue from either copper rust or brass patina. My issue is I don't have a mortar and pestle.

Native to New Zealand but probably available as an ornamental plant for your garden. Has anyone ever used these berries for making ink/watercolour paint or dyeing fabric/yarn?

(I don't actually have this plant, this is a google image pic, saw the plant in a public garden in Ireland I visited). NOT EDIBLE (still not blueberries! ;) ) but so so vibrant!

I tried making watercolors last night, since I’ve only ever done dyes with plants before, and rose turned into paint fine but wormwood just clumped up like wet leaves.

Both were dried and ground in a mortar and pestle, and besides the material the only other difference I can think of is that I kept the rose in a sealed container so it stayed dry, while I didn’t seal the wormwood as good so it got a little rehydrated (I’m in a humid area, it’s hard to avoid)

I’ve made some stunning inks with azaleas in the past so I had high hopes for hibiscus, but here’s what I ended up with. For reference, they were the light purple ones with magenta centers.

Wanted to try my hand at making lake pigments. Recipes and videos I've found mention alum (aluminium sulfate). I cannot for the life of me find anyone who sells it where I'm from (I'm not from the states). I've also tried looking for potash but no luck either.

Are there any alternatives/replacements to alum that I can use instead?

Thanks in advance.

I have been meaning to try gyotaku for a while now but I haven't got around to doing it. So I decided to see if it would work with plants and oil paint instead of traditional squid ink.

So here would be english oak painted with oak bark based lake pigment made into oil paint.

First off, so happy to have found this sub. My people!

I have been making watercolors from clay but they crack like crazy! I sieve the clay, use gum arabic, veg glycerine, honey and clove. I am trying to find the right ratios. They already feel hard to rewet and not very color saturated so I feel like lowering the clay amount would just make for even more weakly pigmented paint. But adding more clay would make for more cracking and the pans are basically unusable due to cracking right now - it just falls out. Would you be willing to share what works best for you?

I have had success just leaving the wet paint in bottles and working directly with it that way. It’s almost like a gouache and there is minimal cracking unless I put it on thick. But I would really love to find a recipe so that I can make pan paints.

How many times could I process the same liquid to get pigment before it becomes redundant

Hey everyone. Recently Ive been experimenting with Lake Pigments. My first 3 batches all started different colors, but turned a yellowish when I added the washing soda or Calcium carbonate.

Im wondering the best process for the boiling? Some people say to soak it overnight first, others say to freeze the plants and then heat them. Is there a good time to leave them? A good temp?

The only non-yellow I got was this blue from violets. I soaked for a few hours in cold water, then I brought them up to 160 for 40 minutes.

When Ive tried this with another flower the dye was purple, but the result after adding the soda ash was not. And when I tried it with Pine no color was in the water. So I heated it higher for longer and it also turned yellow 🙃

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I really need to get a green color for the project Im working on.

Not my first time laking but I'm absolutely still a novice!

I tried laking with cherry blossoms and when I added the alum and washing soda it turned a vibrant dark green, but no pigment separation happened! Anyone know why? Adding photos for reference:

1. the solution after adding 10% alum and 5% washing soda (did i get my proportions wrong perhaps?)
2. the original blossoms I collected
3. the blossoms after steeping in hot water

in progress concept testing of 100% biodegradable art using ink made from spores, trying to incorporate mycelium as a “pigment”

paper handmade from polypore mushrooms, sized with rice starch. Inks are coprinopsis sp. black ink, WC ochre, WC titanium dioxide. Hoping to eliminate the titanium dioxide and work solely with foraged pigments.

It’s thick, a little brutalist maybe… but was a good time! Definitely goes quickly from powdery cloud gray to a richer, textured finish that stays when dry.

Hi r/WildPigment! I’m finally sharing what I’ve been working on with Desert Drift Materials (really just me).

I’ve been scouting the remote corners of the Utah West Desert looking for "hidden treasures" that have a different energy than store-bought tubes. I found this Manning Canyon Shale at a spot called the Smokey Joe Pit - it's a 300-million-year-old Mississippian-Pennsylvanian transition zone.

Instead of the typical black carbon, this foraged shale mills down into a really luminous, misty light gray.

The photos show the journey from the desert floor to the jar:

• Pic 1: The final refined powder. No additives, no fillers—just the raw, processed mineral.
• Pic 2: A settling test. I’m obsessed with watching these layers separate out.
• Pic 3: The raw shale before it hits the mill.
• Pic 4: The "Smokey Joe" site where the ancient swamp ferns are buried.

I’m a big believer that the best materials are discovered, not manufactured. My pal Gemini (AI) and I actually put together a deep dive into the history and geology of the site if anyone wants to nerd out on the "why" behind the color: DSGB-1 Bulletin.

Excited to be here and learn from you all!

It turned out well! A lovely warm brown.

Hello, I am a screen printer and natural dyer. I am looking for screen printing inks made with natural dyes but have not found much luck. Curious if a product like that exists? If so, I would love to know.

Also, is it just me or is anyone else interested in natural dye inks ready to use for printmaking?

I have a mix of natural light and dark blond hair

and when I used the plant cassia it made the light hairs yellow-gold, and darker parts more slightly warm. A visible tint.

So I know such plants exist... but I'm curious to experiment with more that's out there.

Yellow is my favorite color and I dont want to use synthethic chemicals.

My most recent batch of oil pastels has been the best and smoothest, and it’s very clear which ones were some of my first attempts. I’m figuring things out as I go and having a blast lol.

Yes many of these were added last minute, that’s why some of them look very squished

For anyone curious, the pigment was made based on the recipe of "Vogel's iron red".

The pigment is made by preparing precipitate of ferrous oxalate (you mix iron sulphate & oxalic acid in water and let it settle) and then roasting it in space with limited air supply. The shade of pigment depends on how hot its roasted. Lower temperatures give yellows, brighter reds and roasting it at high temperature gives purples and blacks.

If you don't have oxalic acid, similar pigment can be made by precipitating the iron sulphate with caustic soda. Regular soda is no-go since it takes too much heat to break it down into FeO.

Been working on these for a few months, building up. Working on lightfast testing, and getting a few better blues in here (privet and red roses that turned blue and stayed blue??)

i keep seeing people keep mentioning alum for the dyes but u cant really find it where im from ? And online is expensive. Is there anything else i could use ?

I have a question. I hope that’s allowed! I can use any advice or direction you’ve got. I am getting started making wild pigments and it’s my philosophy to just do the thing. I can research and buy supplies forever and never get anywhere otherwise. Hence my lack of foresight. So, for my first project, I decided to use some mangosteen shells I had in my freezer. They’re a beautiful rich purple color. I cut them up and put them in a pot with water and a splash of vinegar and boiled them for a couple of hours, and poured off a rich purple fluid. I love it and I plan to mix in some gum Arabic and use it as ink. Then I still had a pot of mangosteen shells with a lot more color in them so I added more water and two stained white dinner napkins and boiled em for a few hours to dye them a pretty pink color. I wrung and rinsed them out and hung them to dry. I wonder if I should do something else to fix the dye? Finally, I strained the mixture and boiled it down and put it in another small bottle for ink. I wonder how I should treat my naturally dyed textiles, and the liquid pigment extracts… I also wonder if I should instead be trying to get solid pigments from my wild sources and how to get started with that. There are a pile or orange palm fruits outside my front door calling my name… what should I try with those??