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Purple paint from blueberries (lemmy.today)
submitted 1 month ago by Wren@lemmy.today to c/Art_Alchemist_Guild@lemmy.today
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I use the lake pigment method to make most of my paints, though it's a little different for blueberries — I soak them in isopropyl instead of water to make dye.

After that I use an acid/base reaction to precipitate the colour out of solution, let it dry, pulverize the resulting hard cake of pigment, and mix with glycerine, honey, gum arabic solution and clove oil to make watercolour paint I dry in pans.

Yes, my muller is a glass butt plug and my pallette is a microwave platter. I'm industrious, not rich.

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[-] Wren@lemmy.today 4 points 1 month ago

The plug is dedicated to paint, fortunately.

Depending on where you live, you could get a whole colour wheel. I have yellow to peach to brown from birch bark, light green from a blue spruce, deep green from mint. Marigolds, weld and roses can all do yellows and oranges. I chip off iron oxide-rich rocks rom the cliff sides to get deep oranges and browns. If you have copper, you can make verdigris. I get blues from red cabbage and red roses, too. Eggshells for white.

Oh, and I ground up all the dead pill bugs in my basement for gray. You really gotta think outside the box.

[-] wizzor@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 month ago

Hmm, this sounds like a fun hobby. I'll look into trying something simple when the summer comes.

this post was submitted on 25 Feb 2026
81 points (100.0% liked)

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