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Make your very own paints from plants, berries, and powders!
Life would be super boring without any colour or paintings but did you know you can make paints from natural things, like plants and berries?
Using plants to make dyes is an age-old art that will truly make you feel like you’re getting back to your roots.
You won’t need a lot to get started and it’s easy once you have the hang of it!
More to click.
- Download the free Track Pack activity!
- Back to school tips!
- Emma finishes the Summer Challenge!
Getting Started
Basically, all paints are a type of dye and the colour comes from pigments.
Paints are made from two things: pigment and a binder. The binder helps the colour stay on whatever you’re painting on!
Every colour can be made by mixing other colours together: the primary colours. They’re red, blue, and yellow!
We’re going to make those colours and then you can mix these to make others.
Blue – blackberries, blackcurrants, blueberries!
Red – beetroot, rose petals, cranberries, strawberries!
Yellow – mustard powder, pumpkin, bee pollen!
How to make your own natural paints:
- Push berries or other soft fruit through a sieve to extract your pigment, then mix with just a small splash of water!
- Grind petals, leaves, or other dry items before mixing with a tiny, tiny bit of honey!
- Powders are the easiest! Just mix powders like mustard powder in water being super careful to add just the right amount. You don’t want so much water that it’s super runny but you want enough so that it’s not grainy!
We want to see photos of your paints and paintings! Once you’ve given this a shot, get in touch!
Making paints from flowers is relaxing and exciting! It’s a fun STEAM experiment that tests what pigments we can create from flowers. Each flower can give us a variety of colors. By experimenting with additives from the kitchen – like salt, baking soda, alum, and lemon – we can see how the colors change.
This past week, I’ve been experimenting with Morning Glories. It will be wonderful to do this project with the 2nd grade and my college students!
Materials:
- Flowers
- Something to collect flowers in
- A pot to simmer flowers and/or a place to crush and smash the flowers
- Water (Distilled or rainwater is preferable – fog water, too!)
- Baking soda, salt, vinegar, alum, soda ash, lemon juice or other kitchen chemicals
- A whisk, stick or spoon to stir
- Paper
- Paintbrush
- Pencil (To preserve color):
- A jar
- A label or tape to use as a label
- A clove, wintergreen oil or thyme oil
Gather the Morning Glories into a large basket or pot so that they aren’t crushed.
Step 2: Extracting pigment
- Hung up to dry. I use a needle and thread to sew the flowers and then hang them upside down, so you can use them later. If you want to use them immediately, there’s no need to dry them.
- Simmered in water. If you use distilled water or rainwater, the water will have fewer chemicals than tap water.
- Ground-up so that liquid is pressed out. I use a mortar and pestle. Add water – a little at a time – to create a puddle of color.
- Hammered in between sheets of paper. Hammering breaks the cell walls and pigment will be deposited on the paper like a print. Also, hammering is fun!
