Making a Lake Pigment of a Christmas tree
As we prepared to say goodbye to our Christmas tree earlier this year, a thought struck me—could I perhaps extract any color from the nails?
Determined, I began ripping the nails off the branches. This task definitely took much longer time and more effort than I anticipated…
But, two days later, with some sore fingers and a determined mind, all nails were off and I proceeded.
The nails eventually yielded a dye, though it wasn't exactly the vibrant hue I had hoped for. Despite letting the nails soak for almost a week.
It was definitely a bit disappointing— the dye liquid was lacking the saturation I had envisioned.
But, I continued, determined to see if I, in fact, could create a lake pigment and, if so, what color would it be?
The lake process worked like a charm and this is really where the magic happens!
The most exciting moment for me, is definitely this stage. The magical moment when the dye transforms into a pigment and begins to settle at the bottom of the jar and offering that first real hint of its true colour.
It is just as exciting every time and I always feel like a child at Christmas eve when I work through this process!
The next exciting stage is the final transformation of the pigment into artist paint.
Transforming the pigment into paint and exploring it's tonal range, character and full capacity almost always reveals new and surprising discoveries.
Even though you follow some kind of formula creating the lake pigment - every time you make a new batchfrom the same source it differs from the last one you did. There are always elements out of you control that affect the final result - such as the time of year the material was harvested/collected and weather condition.
Despite a disapointing initial stage of this alchemical exploration, I am positivily surprised by the final result and colour capacity. I will definitely repeat it next year!
I am wondering if there are any other artists out there that has explored this source before? If so, let's get in contact and chat!