Week Twenty-Nine: More Lake Pigments

This week I’ve been experimenting with more lake pigment making, using dandelions and blackberries. I am setting myself the challenge to see if I can create a palette of lake pigment colours that are from UK native plants. I’m thinking about how this process can connect us to the land and the seasons. Now that Spring is here there is lots of plant life popping up at my allotment such as nettles and sticky weed, and I’m going to collect these over the next week to see if I can make more lake pigments. I’ve ordered a load of seeds for UK native plants and I’ll start to sow these in preparation for the plot.

Dandelion Lake Pigment

It’s interesting to see the colour of the lake pigment. I have found that the colour looks different when extracted as a natural dye to when filtered and dried as a lake pigment. The colour looks lighter and brighter once I have put it in the pestle and mortar.

BlackBerry Lake Pigment

I had searched for UK native plants that have purple petals to see if I could create a purple lake pigment. I tried a purple and pink primrose but the lake pigment is currently looking a golden yellow colour. The colour completely disappeared from the petals during the natural dye extraction which was interesting to see. I looked for an alternative and found it difficult to find many UK native flowers that are purple and that I had access to. I decided to purchase some blackberries instead to test and see the results.

Lake Pigments

I’m wondering what the lightfastness will be like for these lake pigments. I’m going to make a couple more before testing out some techniques that I have been learning such as painting with soya milk.