Lake pigments continued

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Now that I have a small first collection of pigments to play with before new plants can be tested next summer (I do have some old dried things I can try too), there are multiple ways to use them. They need some kind of binder, although I suppose you could just soak them in water. Alcohol? But even watercolours have binders added to add intensity to the colour as well as make it stick to your paper.

You can use oil, egg, honey*, gum, shellac, wax, milk, spit! or buy readymade binders for a variety of mediums. Even an acrylic binder which I may just have to test, although I’m leaning towards wax and shellac since I plan on working with that anyway.

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Natural pigments

My interests are many as I mentioned last week, always keep branching out, and yet they also converge in convoluted ways. Besides my love of strong, bright colours, I also enjoy the palette of mother nature that I see change and return each year, season by season. It is after all a grey and brown world half the time. It puts ideas in my head for plant dyed wool, growing my garden, making paper from dried plants, for using earth pigments and ink only. Motifs of rocks, feathers, bark and moss. Runes and crows and moonlight.
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