Ink, Dye, and Paint From Nature 🌸🌿🖌️🎨
Images: source 1 | Source 2
If you need a new hobby, the next time you are in your garden or somewhere foraging is legal(or right from your kitchen scraps), browse around for some natural pigments.
With a little work, you can make your own dye, ink, and watercolour paints.
Liquid Ink/Dye/Watercolour Paint
With ratios from This Link.
Boil: Put your plant into a pot with water(1 cup plants to 2 cups water) with a dash of salt and 1tsp vinegar. Simmer for 1-2h while occasionally stirring.
Test and Experiment: Using strips of paper, periodically dip to see how you are progressing. If it isn’t satisfactory, keep boiling. Experiment with adding salt or water to adjust the levels until you get a pigment you like.
Stain: Strain your mixture then filter out any solids with a coffee filter or cheese cloth.
Binders: To bind your ink, use gum arabic(1 part to 10 parts ink).
Preserving: To preserve your ink, put a whole clove before sealing the jar. Consider storing in the fridge.
Powdered pigments can also be made from earth or crushed rocks, but here are the direction specifically for plants.
Dry: Hang dry your plants, or put them in a dehydrator, or spread them out on a pan in the sun to dry them out completely.
Grind: Using a mortar and pestle, grind the plants into a fine powder. Wearing a mask is recommended when dealing with any sort of fine powders you could breathe in.
Binder: Mix in a binder agent(such as gum arabic) and use with a little water.