Pigment Paradise
In the Fall of 2023, I had the honor of being selected to fulfill a grant through the Focus Grant Fund at Iowa State University. For the grant I devised a unique project to be completed by Spring of 2024. My project, expanding upon my Honors Project on Natural Dye, was to derive color from natural materials to create watercolor from scratch.
Deriving the Color
Using the grant, I was able to acquire many new colors I had not yet worked with. To maintain authenticity and promote sustainability I opted to purchase the plant material in their whole form. Going one material at a time, I boiled or heated the water (depending on the fragility of the color) for at least one hour. Straining the mixture, the colored water would go into large jars. I added a mixture of alum and soda ash which extracted the pigment/plant material from the water. The particles slowly fell to the bottom of the jar. Using a turkey baster I removed the excess clear water as much as possible. The tedious task became to dry out the pigment.
Collecting Pigment
Using coffee filters sitting in little strainer baskets I slowly added the remaining content from the jars. It takes a long time to drain the excess water from the pigment. I had a rotation of four drip pans. Once the water had leaked out and the damp pigment remained, I carefully transported the coffee filter to a sheet of drywall sitting on a table. The drywall dried out the coffee filter at a much faster rate. Once dry, the pigment can be scraped into a mortar and pestle to be crushed, or a decommissioned coffee grinder. The powder or pigment dust could then be funneled into jars.
Creating the Watercolor
I created a watercolor base using gum arabic, glycerin, clove oil, and hot water. I laid out a scoop of a selected pigment onto my frosted plate and mixed in the base with a pallete knife. Once incorporated, I used my glass muller to grind the pigment into the frosted plate in figure 8 and circular motions. Once reached a desired consistency, I scooped up the color into small watercolor trays and labeled them accordingly.
Painting
Once dried, I created a variety of swatches. Then sample watercolor studies were created. The watercolor paper was mounted to a wood board using matte gel medium and smoothing it out. Using graphite I created my composition. Painting this composition was very nerve wracking. My intuition and experience with color compositions turned out to be my greatest asset.