Amber Dusick

Handmade Chalk Turquoise Paint & Lightfastness Tests

I inherited a portion of my uncle's rock collection when he died about ten years ago. He was a hobby jeweler and did his own lapidary in his basement. Many of the stones he made jewelry with were found by him during his lifetime as a rock collector by going to rock digs or simply collecting Lake Superior agate along the shore. 

Included in the box of mystery rocks and rough gemstones were two small jars of turquoise.

The jar on the right is what is called "chalk turquoise" and it is rather chalky and grinds down fairly easily. 

A beautiful, soft blue green color. So the question is (it is ALWAYS my question!) what about lightfastness? I am particularly interested because of the genuine turquoise Daniel Smith brand paint lightfastness results that Jane Blundell shared.  After 19 months in a sunny window, they did show some fading. 

You might think that "some fading" after 19 months would be no big deal, I mean, which plant dye could ever hold up that long in full sun? (Spoiler: none of them.) The part that is fascinating is...why? Why does turquoise fade? And if it does, how quickly? 

Makes a greenish color when painted out (interesting!) and it isn't vibrant enough that I'd use it for my work anyway, but still...a fun experiment.  

So I covered a piece of wood as well as some watercolor paper and left it in a south facing sunny window for a month. There was no change. So I left it another month... 

After two months? No change, no fading.  

No idea if with more time they would indeed fade, or if the Daniel Smith brand paints that were tested in the link shared above have something else going on. Not sure, but very interesting. 

 

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Where to Find Rocks for Pigments to Make Paint

So where do you find rocks that can be processed down into fine pigments to make paint and stains? And what rocks to look for?  

Here's the thing. Any rock that you can grind down finely can be used. Some rocks are much, much easier to grind down finely than others so that's the only trick there is. If you had the ability to grind diamonds into fine dust you could use diamonds. It's really this simple.

My mortar and pestle that I use for initial smashing of rocks is a cast iron mortar and pestle and then once pea sized, I switch to my granite mortar and pestle. This means that I am only able to grind down rocks that are softer than granite. Granite is pretty darn hard. It is a 6-7 on the moh's hardness scale. So really, the main limiting factor is whether or not you can grind it down to a fine powder.

Just another reminder to use dust masks, people. Please. 

The short answer to where to find rocks for pigment is anywhere. The long answer is that it depends on where you live.

Here is an example of a bunch of rocks and dirt revealed when a construction crew came through and dug an area up. Road cut outs (where hills are cut away for a road to pass through) are often excellent places to check. 

Another place to check is where land meets water - river, lake, ocean shores and even tiny creek beds.

Below is a perfect example of a river source. Just looks like a bunch of brown stones, right? Any color here?

 At first glance, it can be hard to see, but if you look closer (often colors are only revealed on the inside, being stained brown on the outside) you'll see potential. 

These are sandstone - I talk about how to process rocks for wood stains in a different post that features sandstone.

The rocks pictured at the very top of this post ground down finely and easily into these colors:

These are mostly ochre colors, near the site of an abandoned iron mine. If you happen to have iron mining history in your area (time to dig out the local history books) it can be an excellent place to search. 

Sometimes, following clues like the names of towns or roads can lead you to interesting places. 

In some areas of the world, exposed rock and land formations have bands of colors or there can be entire mountains of color (think colorful desert areas that include names like "painted" or "red" for starters) so it really depends on where you are.

Every handmade rock or earth based color I use is also tested for lightfastness directly on wood samples like these above. I have yet to find a single earth based pigment that fades in the slightest...which is why I am so enamored with them and why they have replaced plant colors for me (with the exception of  beloved indigo here and a few others). More on using indigo on wood here.  
 

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Red Hopi Amaranth Dye & Lightfastness Tests

I have grown red hopi amaranth for seven years now and it is one of my favorite garden plants. It is beautiful and becomes a staple green for us in summer in cooked egg scrambles and salads. We also feed it to our rabbits. The seeds are abundant and easy to save. It is also a beautiful dye plant... 

The thing is, to extract the dye, I have found that it cannot be heated. Stovetop dyeing will quickly turn it to a brown. This is yet another dye that benefits from gentle solar dyeing in glass jars, which is how I dye everything (except when using indigo and sometimes walnut). 

Here is a page from my dye book. Only the flower heads that have already gone to seed at the end of the season offer the vibrant magenta color and it is coaxed out with the addition of vinegar. Two weeks in solar jars in the hot August sun. The leaves offer yellow. Alkaline seed dye offers orange tones. 

Very pretty and vibrant!! 

So what about lightfastness? I am always going to bring up and test lightfastness because the lack of transparency on this topic is the most frustrating thing about the plant dye community. 

Here is a test card with a variety of dyes, which I know are NOT lightfast enough for me. I think each person has different standards - either that or very few people are actually doing their own lightfastness tests. 

From left: 2 avocado pit, 3 black hollyhock petal, 2 painted mountain corn husk, 2 black bean, 2 red hopi amaranth 

Wool yarn was mordanted with alum, solar dyed in jars. All samples sat in a sunny window for three weeks. 

Lightfast huh? Not really. Though honestly, I am surprised by how well the black bean did, I thought it would fade even more than it did. It didn't go grey as I expected, just a lighter version of blue.  

Even the avocado pits faded considerably, especially on the 2nd yarn sample. Yes, different yarns will alter results! This is why it is so, so, so important to do your own lightfastness tests before selling products.

Again, I am not vilifying natural dyes, I adore them and will continue to use them (even amaranth) for my own projects.  But I can't stress enough that lack of transparency (and testing by individual makers) could be the downfall of natural dyes for those selling products dyed with them. And that would be a shame. 

More about lightfastness tests for my own work of plant dyes on wood here. 

 

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Shop Update: Tree Series Releases Next Week

Well, it certainly has been a long time since I offered a shop update. At least if you consider three years to be a long time. 

I have been working on this tree series for five months and just finished the last one this week. There are seven pieces in all. 

I have completely switched to using handmade stains from all natural materials. I no longer use any purchased paint made with synthetic pigments or binders. 

Each color is from rocks, dirt, clay or plants. This is a core part of my creative process now. Finding pigment rocks and processing them into useable colors. Growing plants from seed to harvest and processing them into useable colors. This is where nature intersects with art making in my creative process. Well, in addition to nature having always been a primary inspiration source, that is. 

Natural colors from rocks and plants can be mixed to form a broad palette that magically seems to always look beautiful together and adds an "aliveness" quality to the work that I've never found from synthetic colors. 

The wood itself (being a yellow tone) adds a warmth and vibrancy itself as well, changing dingy greens to brighter, fresher ones. Many colors I make look vastly different once applied to wood than they do in dry pigment form, so I test each one first. 

I am also continuing to do lightfast tests. Rock and earth pigments are generally stable, but there are some exceptions. Plants are almost never lightfast enough for my liking, but there are also some exceptions. 

I could talk more about the work itself, but I have always enjoyed artwork more when it is not explained to me. Everyone sees what they are going to see anyway.  

All of these (plus a couple more) will be available next week in my shop. 

 

 

 

Shelter & Grow

Shelter & Grow, 2020, 12" x 12", homemade plant and earth/mineral stains on wood

I won't share much about the current quarantine situation we are all finding ourselves in, other than say that art is always how I have processed things. 

I do think often about the potential for growth through this experience - both individually and collectively, though time will tell. The cynic and the optimist in me like to debate this. 

Stay safe, everyone. 

Plant Stains on Wood Lightfastness Tests

I mentioned before that the reason I have moved away from working with plant dyes and stains for the most part is due to poor lightfastness. It all fades. Everything. Some last much longer than others, of course, and there are things you can do to help it last longer, but organic (plant based) pigments will never retain color like inorganic (earth/mineral based) pigments do, which is what I primarily use now - with a few exceptions. 

Over the last several months, I have tested many different botanical wood dyes and stains as well as methods for getting the deepest, most lightfast color. 

First up is a test I did with a plant material that I already knew is not very lightfast based on my prior tests on wool. I was primarily testing to see which method could increase lightfastness. Dye stuff used was painted mountain corn husks heated in water. It dyes a lovely pink on wool or wood. 

Samples are as follows:

1. None - wood was soaked in concentrated dye bath for 6 hours
2. Alum - wood was first soaked in alum, allowed to dry and then soaked in concentrated dye bath for 6 hours
3. Soy - wood was first soaked in soy milk, allowed to dry and then soaked in concentrated dye bath for 6 hours
4. Lake - a botanical lake pigment was made from the concentrated dye bath, filtered, dried, and then pigment used to make a watercolor paint which was painted on the wood

The soy and lake gives the deepest color, however, the lake pigment was just painted once. Layers of color could have been added, making it even more saturated.

These four samples were half covered in card stock (I use inside out cereal boxes, they are perfect for this) and left in a sunny south facing window for just a mere three weeks.

The none and alum samples faded to nothing. The exposed soy faded to brown, while the lake pigment paint retained the most color, with very little fading. Make no mistake though, another few weeks and the lake pigment would have faded considerably! This dye material is not lightfast, which as I mentioned, I knew going in - that was to test to see which method would help. Lake pigments for the win!

After another few weeks just sitting on my shelf, out of direct sun (image above) they have continued to fade. 

I have since tested this with a number of other plant dye materials and the lakes always improve both the saturation and the lightfastness of the color. Soy always fades to a brownish version of itself.  

Here is another lightfast test, this time with a dye material that is much, much more lightfast. I also wanted to test these four methods using a dye that I know lasts a long time. Walnut hulls heated in water.

Note that unlike the three weeks in the sun for the pink corn husks, these were left for over three months. There is a reason walnut stain is a thing. It works. Once again, the lake pigment was the most saturated but all four methods show very little fading. 

By doing these tests over the last many months I have a palette that only includes the most lightfast organic pigments and only using them in the form of lakes. Honestly, though, there aren't too many. Indigo is one, although it is treated in a special way by extracting the pigment and creating maya blue for paint. 

PS - Yes, the type of wood used may affect the result. Oak is much higher in tannins than pine, for example, and a higher tannin content has a tendency to turn colors dingy and brown, rather like what happens in my soy samples. Samples above are pine. I have had similar results on poplar, aspen and birch but I have not tested other wood types since I do not work with them as often.     

 

How to Process Earth Pigments to Make Wood Stains

Pigments. From the earth. From rocks and clay soils. This is what I am using to make wood stains. 

Here is a simple overview of the process, skipping the most fun part (for me) which is finding the stones in the first place. The stone in my example is sandstone, but a discussion of different stones and ochres and minerals and where to find them (most anywhere, seriously) is best reserved for a dedicated post.

Step one is crushing the rock to smaller pieces. A hammer or simply two harder, larger stones (like the basalt I'm using here) will do the trick. I now use a large cast iron mortar and pestle if I'm at home, outside I still use two rocks and a piece of cloth laid over to catch flyaways. 

Note: I always wear glasses when I do this and I always were an N100 mask when I'm grinding pigments. I also now use a portable intake air filter when I grind indoors. It's actually for wood (I use it for hand sanding indoors) but it works well for pigment grinding too. Pigment dust is not something you want in your lungs. Tiny, tiny, sharp shreds of rocks and glass in your lungs anyone?

Because this was sandstone, it crushed really easily. After grinding in a mortar and pestle, I filter it through a sieve to remove much of the sand. 

Then it is filtered in water, called levigation. This is where you add water and swirl it around. Just like soil sample tests, the heaviest bits will sink while the finest particles remain suspended in the water. 

Here is a yellow sandstone example where you can also see distinct layers. 

Then I pour off the water into a separate, shallow container to allow the water to evaporate, leaving behind only those fine particles which makes a wonderful pigment for a wood stain as the particles are tiny enough to absorb deep into the wood grain. 

Then more filtering with adding more water - my end goal is to separate out the fine and medium size particles but leave behind the heavy sand. 

On the left (above) is the heavy sand and the right is the fine particles of pigment after levigation and drying. I can still get more pigment from this sand and will repeat the entire process again, leaving behind even paler sand.

Here are the two colors mixed with just water to show their tones. For my work, I make watercolors out of the pigments to help bind the pigment into the wood. 

Above is another rock from my grandmother's farm. This one is claystone. Tough to grind (I had to use the granite mortar and pestle, not the one shown here) but no sand in it so yielded pigment more easily. 

Some of the reds, orange and yellow colors in this rooster (a gift for my grandmother - for her rooster themed kitchen) were made from rocks on her farm. I love the sense of place that is infused into the work.  

 

It's Not Balance, It's Wholeness that Nourishes Creative Flow

Ten years ago I wrote on this very blog a bit about balancing family and creative business.  I also admitted to staying up all night to get my creative time in. Late night working was precisely how I kept up a wooden toy business back then and it was also how I wrote and illustrated Crappy Pictures for those years and wrote books at the same time. Neither one of those were sustainable for me for very long, leading me to disappear from the online world for long periods of time. Hello again, burnout. Stuckness.  

Still, I tried so hard for balance. BALANCE! Was it like a seesaw or a teeter totter? Or was it more like a pendulum that swings back and forth? If I could just understand WHAT it was and how it worked maybe I could achieve it.  

Turns out, it isn't a state of balance that I need for a sustainable flow of creativity, it's a state of wholeness that I seek. 

Flow, 2020. FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified pine, handcrafted stains from indigo, earth clay and rocks. 12" x 12". Not for sale.   

The segments of my symbol represent the non-negotiable elements of my life that must be present for the circle of me to be whole and happy.  

My seven are: family & relationships, learning, health, home, nature, self and creative expression. 

When all seven are in place I can stay afloat, or flow creatively. When a segment is missing, the shape is broken and I am no longer able to roll forward. I am stuck. I sink. Not in a place of flow. 

The segments change size, they wax and wane based on what is going on in my life. They would look very different through the years, but the important thing is that they are present and being attended to, no matter how small a sliver they temporarily become. What I cannot do is let one take over others or turn my back on any. 

Now that I have this Flow symbol, this visual representation for how I want to guide my life every decision is checked against it. "Does this decision nourish one of my parts of flow? Does it take away from any? Do any need attending to?"

This framework allows for much flexibility. Could I ever make the decision to stay up until 2am looking at knitting patterns online? Well, yes, it could certainly be a way to recharge (self/health) or to enjoy myself (learning/creative expression) if I haven't had a chance to do that in a while and that part of me felt like I needed it. Make sense? So what about deciding to stay up until 2am multiple nights in a row? Well, then it starts taking away from sleep too much, which is taking away from health, and my irritable tired self the next day would be taking away from family & relationships.

It is a method to keep in flow in a slower and sustainable way. This check in method reminds me to nourish all of me, not just the new project I'm excited about at the expense of everything else. 

Side note: the brown segment was colored using clay that we found at the edge of the prairie when we dug our dog's grave last year - that is the family segment. The one that represents home was colored with indigo that I grew at home. Other colors were sourced from trips to Lake Michigan with my family, hikes and travels. The colors themselves and the process of obtaining them also connect me to the meaning behind each segment.   

 

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Reflections: Indigo & Yellow Ochre Wood Stain Mirror

Reflections, 2020. FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified pine, handcrafted stains from indigo and yellow ochre. 3ft wide. Not for sale.   

Ha, you can see my pink phone in the mirror. Mirrors are fun to photograph. The mirror was found in a garage and I've held onto it for  several years with the intention of creating a frame for it like this. 

Here is a peek of the yellow in process. 

This was sandstone which takes effort to filter out the sand. This photo is before any of those steps, once filtered the pigment left behind was an even more vibrant yellow. 

And here is a peek of the earlier life of the blue! 

Though, this photo was later in the season when the indigo was already flowering and looking a little fried. It's my understanding that the pigment content is higher just before flowering so I focused most of my harvesting before this point. 

When I look at this piece, I see the sunny garden where the indigo grew and the hike where I collected the sandstone. This process and nature oriented work is my current obsession. 

 

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make maya blue paint from homegrown indigo

In addition to making watercolor wood stains using my homegrown indigo I also made Maya blue paint. Maya blue is combing indigo pigment with a specific type of clay by heating it. The main reason it interests me is because by combining the indigo pigment with a clay, the clay shields the pigment and makes it much more lightfast and stable.  

Above, sepiolite and my own homegrown indigo pigment extracted from dried indigo leaves. 

I bought the sepiolite and used instructions from Natalie Stopka. 

Here is the indigo and clay mixed together. 

And here it is heating in a pan on the stove. You can see how it is darkening around the edges. 

Then after five minutes, it was all darkened and the color was no longer spotted and mottled. Almost done.  

After cooling fully, I ground it down once again in the mortar and pestle and added 1 grams honey and 10 grams Acacia tree sap (gum arabic).

Once fully mixed I poured it into a tin to dry. 

You can see that maya blue makes a slightly greener or turquoise version of the indigo paint. 

Above are two batches I made using different batches of indigo, showing both plain pigment watercolors and maya blue watercolors made from the same dry pigment. The second time I spent more time grinding down the clay before adding the indigo pigment and I think that made a cleaner maya blue. Then again, that was using the better more saturated indigo pigment to begin with so not sure. 

All of these look gorgeous on wood, which of course is my end goal for them.  

 

 

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I've closed comments on this blog as I don't have time to check them and was getting slammed with spam comments. You can connect with me via instagram Amber_Dusick and I'm happy to answer questions there.