re: I made all of the inks in this painting myself from natural ingredients.. More pics added

Some mushrooms, especially late season mushrooms make red dyes that are difficult to find in nature. I know people here collect them to dye fabrics. Might be a source for dyes you hadn’t considered.

Those are all really quite nice! Keep up the good work!

This one is awesome I wouldn't mind having that

upvote number 300 and I love the owl picture

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I have some “anil” indigo growing around my house (it propagates easily). Any ideas on getting some dye from them?

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You asked a difficult question so hopefully you won't find the answer "TL;DR."

I have collected instructions for isolating indigo powder when I grow it for the first time this spring. It's somewhat complicated. The pigment must first be fermented from the leaves. Indigo- from garden to blue powder (25 minute video).

The powder is what I need to make my paints, but if you want to use it to dye fabrics, the best processes have a lot of fun chemistry and require toxic ingredients like lye and Thiox. Procedure for 7 gallon vat- wear a mask! *This PDF also has a fantastic explanation of the actual chemistry on the third page for my fellow nerds.

There are much simpler processes for dying with fresh leaves using just ice, cold water, and a blender. However the citations for this method note Japanese indigo is preferred and it produces turquoise. I don't know if it will work well with añil or the variety I want to use (true indigo). This method will also not allow for the powder collection which is what I need to make my paints.

The añil is your garden is "Guatemalan indigo," indigofera suffruticosa. Mayans used it thousands of years ago and their process of combining with Palygorskite clays was so sophisticated that the pigment still remains unfaded today...

It is also the type of indigo Levi Strauss used to dye jeans during the Industrial Revolution.

I found out it even has some interesting pharmacological properties and is being studied for potential medicinal purposes.

This is awesome. I’ve always been jealous of people who have the ability to draw and paint

I couldn’t xerox an image of a stick figure

far out LOL

I’ll get to researching then. It would be fun to do some tie dyes with natural inks. I have plenty of tumeric everywhere as well as the indigo. Reds seem easy enough to make and that’s all you really need

Great thread by the way I’m impressed with your skills. I’m all in on this