Lake pigments continued

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closetohome, colour, crafts, DIY, mordant, nature, plants, primitivepaints, scruffyartsupplies

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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.

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Plant pigment

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close to home, colour, crafts, DIY, garden, mordant, nature, plants, primitivepaints, scruffyartsupplies, summer

Five years ago I did a brief test of concentrated plant dye baths to see what they were like as watercolours. I didn’t add anything to it as I recall and I’m not sure where my sample is now!

Paraphernalia

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crafts, creativity, DIY, inspiration, papermaking, tools

Didn’t get ready today to show you a full version of my pigment experiment as planned, as I’ve had other things to attend to. So I thought I’d show you my latest finding, a book press which I thought could help me get water out of new paper sheets, rather than stacking cinderblocks on the floor. One way of tackling multiple projects could be doing so as efficiently as possible!

More on local art supplies

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close to home, colour, country life, crafts, DIY, dyeing, mordant, nature, plants

During an investigation into using dry pigments and beeswax for painting rather than oilpaints, which I’m not enjoying, I’d been reading about making lake pigments and thought it would be fun to give it a try. These are pigments from plants as opposed to rock/earth/metal based colours, and since I already had some remedies as well as dried plant materials for dyeing wool, it wasn’t too much trouble to give it a try.

Tidbit of the week

Tags

DIY, experimenting, process

It all started out as an experiment in various painting techniques, using some old precut fiber boards lying around. Then, as we have awesome power tools, I thought I’d try making my own frames again, just to explore the option for oddly sized images.

Loom extension

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cotton, crafts, DIY, equipment, home, loom, studio, tools, weave drafts, woven

I’ve long wanted a few more pattern options on my Lervad no. 9 – not as much since I got the Glimåkra, but still. 8 shafts would require a lot of remodelling (for instance I would have loved to extend all the lamms), so I settled for 6. That means I can work with supplemental warps in designs, at least 3 variations of waffle weave, turned 2/1 twill blocks just to mention a few of the ideas I’ve had over the years.

Warped stretcher bars

Tags

canvas, crafts, creativity, DIY, equipment, Painting, solution, tools

Normally they say that if a canvas won’t hang flat against the wall and wedges don’t solve the problem, restretch. If the frame itself is warped, get another.

So what do you do if you are “poor” and kept a large bundle of previously used bars in your barn for better times, and, when assembled anew, some of them warp?

Papermaker

Tags

crafts, creativity, DIY, dyeing, nettles, paper

Yesterday I decided to do a test round making my own paper. I’d bought a small deckle to begin with thinking it would be post card sized, and it was – on the outside! The actual papers turned out to be only 12 x 7½ cm. I also think I may not like the fine silk screen used, it takes forever to drain the water. So I’m going to have to make my own deckle after all I guess and have some mosquito netting I’ll try for that. Once I get some wood.

Cleaning old paintings

Tags

DIY, paint, soap

Last week I mentioned that I’d tried out natural soap for cleaning a couple of very dirty old paintings that were left stranded in our hayloft.

These were not high quality art, presumably from the 1960’s or thereabouts, and I wasn’t trying to actually save them. I just wanted to see how it went and perhaps play a bit. So if you do this and paint comes off too, don’t blame me!

Soap suds – sæbetest 2

Tags

crafts, DIY, link love, sæbe, soap

Last month I received a gift of handmade, natural soaps and now that I’ve been using them I can definitely say that they keep their promise. In between cats, horses, paint, dye chemicals, gardening and the usual reasons, I wash my hands a lot and had been noticing that my knuckles have become very dry and scruffy over the winter. Now that is completely gone without any use of lotion, my hands are very soft again.