I'm wondering if the effect you're getting is the same as what happens in Barro Negro pottery...where they fire the pottery to a point then smother the pit with a cover or soil...which causes it to turn black, but, it's more of a silvery black than say a sooty black.

The Altoids tin works really well on this stove for charcoal made from sticks and also blue jeans squares (which I tried ages ago for a fire starter kit, and keep meaning to do again since it was so successful and would make great pigment). There is just enough space around the lid to let the smoke escape but not enough to let too much oxygen in to turn anything to ash. The bone, on the other hand, is so dense, maybe I do need a few more air holes, or the bone needs to be smaller pieces, but likely also it needs to be nestled in the coals of fire where it can get hotter than it is getting sitting on top of this burner.

I've scraped the soot off off stuff we've held over our old kerosene stoves, and it makes a really nice pigment, I like it slightly better than the charcoal from wood. I've seen that great video about the Japanese black pigment from the oil lamps, where it gets molded into sticks. Very cool!

Exactly!

I use my processed foraged clay soils to make my pigment sticks (I have also used a pale clay from the ceramics studio). The clay has to be levigated to get rid of any sand, you need the finest particles to make a good drawing stick. The clays I forage come in different colors, and I also sometimes add synthetic pigments, or charcoal or other non clay earth pigments to them to change the color. The clay acts as a binder so I don’t need to add any additional binder. Regular pastels are made with a combination of pigment, filler (like chalk) and a binder - gum tragacanth is the historical binder (it’s different than gum arabic, gum tragacanth hydrates into a gel like substance) but methyl cellulose is used more often now - it also hydrates into a gel like substance, you can find them both online. I have experimented with both, I found the methyl cellulose easier to rehydrate and work with. I don’t use either of those binders currently since the foraged clay binds everything together so well. I have several videos on my channel that talk about how I process clay for pigment sticks.

@ very helpful. I didn’t realize only the foraged clay held it together. I will check out the other videos. I appreciate your time to provide such detail.

@@caprisecooper6252 you are welcome, I'm happy to answer any questions!

I just use tap water when I rinse the pigment.

😊❤😊❤😊❤

It’s hard to throw all those pretty colors away!

I'm not sure I'm understanding the question - but I would not try to make a lake pigment out of a liquid containing copper sulfate. It may not work, and copper minerals aren't very stable color wise (they tend to turn brown). Also - copper sulfate is toxic. If it were me, I would start over by making a dye with fresh flowers.

@ thank you for your response, I was meaning to kill the superficial mould on some of the flowers, I am thinking would it be alright to just discard the mouldy bits and than proceed with making the pigment, skipping copper sulphate.

@Azuredblu yes, you could cut the mold off, or don't worry about it, simmering the flowers in water to make the dye should kill the mold, and a little mold probably won't effect the chemical reaction or the color anyway.

Glad it was helpful!

Glad to hear it! Making your own art supplies is a lot of fun!

I don’t know if this answers your question, but I usually give my foraged pigments location based names, as it helps me remember where I gathered them. Sometimes the location is a creek name, sometimes it’s a nearby town. (The commercially available earth pigments sienna and umber are names for a location the pigments historically came from). There are often multiple colors available at a specific location, in which case, I give the pigments the place name, plus the color name (For example, Bearmouth Red, Bearmouth Orange, Bearmouth Pink). Sometimes I name them using the mineral name, like “magnetite” or “Epidote”. Most of the yellows, reds, oranges, pinks, purples and browns fall into the “ochre” category, so you can call them that - yellow ochre, reds ochre, etc.

@@KJodiGear Those are great ideas. I think I'm going to borrow those from you. Thank you very much, and keep up your videos.

Thank you!

Yes, clay is the only binder, you don’t need anything else. I usually make my pigment sticks from foraged clay and pigments, every clay soil is slightly different - different amounts and kind of clay, some of them draw better than others, I often mix the clays to get the kind of stick I want to draw with - hard or soft or in between. Gum arabic doesn’t work for pastels it makes them not draw. Gum tragacanth is the traditional binder, but methyl cellulose is used more now, I’ve read - I’ve tried both, (you can get them both as food grade items) I found the methyl cellulose was a little easier to work with, (they both hydrate into gels) I used them in some of my pigments that don’t have much clay (so are way too soft to draw with) - they do work. But using the clay that is in the colored soil samples (that I normally make pigment sticks from) is simpler.

Glad you enjoy them!

Definitely! (Sadly the brown isn’t lightfast…)

I’ve “taught” two horses to fetch, this one (I tragically lost him in 2020 to colic 🙁) and my current horse. It’s really just taking advantage of something they both do naturally - they are both mouthy geldings - they really like to put things in their mouths and chew - ropes, reins, my brushes, my sleeves - so I started by offering something to grab (with the horse in the video, it was one of my gloves, with my current horse I used this dog toy). Once they picked it up, I would ask them to drop it into my hand and quickly offer a treat. With my current horse, i set the orange toy on the mounting block and he would pick it up, then I’d say drop it with my hand under the toy and give him a treat. Then I’d graduate to placing the toy or glove to the ground, and get them to pick it up from there. Then I’d put it to the side a little so they’d have to turn their neck to get it, and then swing back to me to get the treat. From there I’d take a step back and have them come to me, then two steps, then sideways, and pretty soon I could toss it just a little ways, and so on. The biggest thing is making sure you don’t overdo. Just a few asks each session - 3 - 5 treats. Keeps them liking it, and still wanting more when we quit. I’ve played with it on and off for a few years with the new horse, he’s only just gotten really good at it - so take your time! I have a video of my new horse fetching on my instagram account. @kjodigear

(The instagram video is about 22 posts down from the most recent one)

You are welcome!

Thank you so much!

I have some yellow ochres (foraged and purchased) that are fairly bright, but not bright like a synthetic yellow pigment is. So far the brightest is one from john marshall (a natural dye website) but it doesn't say where it came from. There are quite a few to choose from on the kremer pigment website, but hard to tell which is the yellowest from the photos.

I aim for a couple of cups or so of dye solution, and I put as many flowers in as it takes to get a strong (lots of color) dye. To that dye, I usually start with about 1 Tablespoon of alum (which I dissolve in warm water), and either ~1.5 teaspoons of washing soda (sodium carbonate) or ~2 teaspoons of chalk (calcium carbonate). It’s an experiment, so keep notes about how you do it the first time, then adjust your amounts based on how it turns out. If your dye solution is weak (pale), your lake pigment will be pale (And won’t - in my opinion - make a very useful paint). So then you either need to add more flowers to make a stronger dye, or you need to add less alum/ sodium carb or calcium carb. Hope this makes sense?

Correct, this video has no sound. I made it for a presentation I gave awhile back and talked while it played.

As long as you get a precipitate, it doesn’t matter if it foams, mine don’t always. And the coffee filters usually clog right away. I often have to wait awhile for them to drain before I can empty the whole jar of pigment. Hope that helps?

Also, would love to hear what colors your pigments turn out to be! I have a purple leafed ornamental choke cherry and the dye is purple, but the lake pigment turns green.

@@KJodiGear Thanks for reply..so far the Sumac dye was purple ,after alum pea green,dried a rusty yellow. Dandilion..lemon all the way. Plum and olive wood..both a red/brown colour. Im not up on the description of colours yet. oh one other Japanesse plum (loquot), same from wood soaking for six months..almost pure white..was quite surprised. filtering now from the garden are Sage,Rosemary,Grass,Beet,Carrot,Walnut husks. Red roses,Wsteria, Nettles and Avacado stone kitchen is full ..next up to process into paint and then try and paint something..

@ fantastic! Hope you get some nice paint!

Yes, if you grind the particles finely enough they can be mixed with water, gum arabic and a drop of clove oil to make an ink. But it will be a pigment ink, so it will need to be shaken before use, the pigment particles won’t stay suspended in solution like a dye would. If you use a dip pen, the other thing you can do is use your watercolor as ink, just load the nib with a watercolor brush dipped in the paint after you’ve moistened your paint pan.

You are very welcome!

Any plant material (including fruits) will work for this as long as whatever you use makes a strong dye. Not all plants make a good strong dye. Be aware that a lot of them change colors when the pH changes, and many fade. I have a great purple leafed tree in my yard, but it makes a dark green lake pigment (it has to do with pH). I have made a lake pigment from dandelion flowers, it’s a paler yellow green color than some other yellow flowers.

@KJodiGear thank you so much!! 💙🎨

@@PaulMcCartney_enthusiast as far as measurements, it’s all an experiment, so keep notes so you remember what works for you. For my lake pigments, I aim for about 1-2 cups of a dye solution, about a tablespoon of alum, and ether 1/2 tablespoon sodium carbonate (washing soda) or 2 teaspoons of calcium carbonate (chalk)

You’re welcome! Glad you enjoyed it!

I mull the powder up with a watercolor medium that I make, (that’s how you make the paint) and pour it into little pans and let them dry. I have several videos here showing how i make watercolor paints, and how I make the medium. I have the watercolor medium recipe on my blog - todayatmydesk.weebly.com/blog scroll down to the 4/19/2020 post titles “making watercolor paint”.

That’s exactly right, alum and sodium carbonate or alum and calcium carbonate are used to make the lake pigment precipitate.

@@KJodiGear thank you. ❤️

Yes. It's sometimes hard to get all of it to dissolve depending on what's in your water. It clumps together and you have to stir it for awhile.

I have a friend who has managed to find a flat bottomed glass at the goodwill that she says works pretty well. You really need to mull paint made with foraged pigment between two completely flat frosted surfaces if you want to get all the particles ground small enough to make good paint. Glass mullers are not that expensive - you can usually find them for between $20 and $30 online. I had the local glass shop cut me a piece of 1/4” glass and smooth the edges for my mulling plate.

No, I have not, but there are probably tutorials somewhere online. It’s not a particularly stable pigment to make paint out of.

@@KJodiGearoh, that is too bad.

@@KJodiGear it took me a long time searching this site for content like yours. Once I did though, it seemed to show other people’s videos similar to yours. Please don’t stop making content on here. There is so much click bait types or ones trying to advertise & not enough content like what you and the handful of others I have found. Thank you for all you do ~

@@townbell2248 yes, once KZbin knows what you like to watch, they find lots of similar content!