Making Natural Pigments

Using Organic Materials

After experimenting with artificial pigment, I thought about making pigment sing entirely organic materials. I had contemplated doing this in the past, but had never actually tried it before.

As I had been experimenting with adding natural materials into plaster, such as clay and soil, but without yielding any clear results, I started thinking about what natural materials I could use that were high in pigment.

My first thought was grass which is like to stain if enough friction or force is applied, like when a child gets grass stains on their knees.

Around the building, I wasn't able to find any suitable grass, but was able to find some long leaves that had a slight fuzz covering them.

The first thing I did with them was crush them with a stone, and rub along the leaf until the protective wax layer of the leaf was broken down. I then put the leaves into a plastic cut and added a small mount of water,

I chose to mash the plants with a fork, as I thought that it would be the quickest and best way using what I had around me. It took a while for anything to happen, and then I realized that in order for the pigment to be washed out of the leaves, it would require more water. Once I started adding more water, the pigment started to come out. The shade of green that the water turned was a lot bolder and seemingly opaque than I thought it was, but when it came to using it a couple of days later, it had undergone a drastic change.

I also decided to see if I could get any pigment out of dandelions, which are notoriously bright, although I feel that if I were to do this again with the flower, I would probably use only the petals, as with the stalks added, the water turned a murky mustard yellow.

Once I had gotten as much pigment out of the plants as possible, I decided to leave the liquids with the pulp resting in them, thinking that more pigment might drain into the water if I did this.

One thing I noticed about the process is that the fragrance of the plants were very noticeable, and the scent was very cloying after working in the room for a while.

After a couple of days, however, I returned to see if the pigments had gotten any more opaque only to find that the colour of the green plant and the water it was sat in had turned a dark shade of green, and was almost black looking at it from a distance. at first I had thought someone might have added black pigment to it, but after I had taken out the plant pulp, I realized that it was just what had happened after I had left it. The pungent smell that was released when I was making the pulp had also diminished, and cold only be smelled when up close to the liquid, but it too had changed to become something even more cloying and borderline disgusting.

The pigments too, were not as opaque and strong as I had thought them to be.

From this point, I started thinking about making things whose natural change would affect the viewer. In the case of this experiment, the smell was only noticeable if up close, but it wasn't a very pleasant smell as it might have been before. 

This experiment also brought into question the materials I could use to progress my work; I prefer to work with plaster, but as the plaster I have been using doesn't set, it means that I cant work in the way I usually would. However, I find this structural instability to be rather interesting, and leads into experimenting with materials that aren't as solid as set plaster, which also incorporates into the factor of a possible ever changing nature in the form.

Materials such as porridge, angel delight, jelly and so on all require a change to take place to get them in an edible state, but the question of what happens if you let them set brings in room for experiments and unpredictable results.

The plant pulp left over from the pigment experiment I chose to keep and let dry, to see if it would hold together or if it would fall apart.