Going through a box of dye materials, I found a bag of hibiscus tea bags and also a pouch of matcha tea. I have been wanting a green ink so thought I would use this matcha and see what happens. I had bought this to drink but then discovered it was high in caffeine which I can not have so just added it to the dye box.
The best photo of the results is this page in my art journal-which is now in my ink journal with my notes and recipes. If you enlarge this photo further you should be able to read the penciled in notes.
To the left-the leaf is matcha. Below it is the hibiscus ink brought to a simmer and held for just 5 minutes. I let the tea bags soak while it cooled down. To the right is the flower that I followed a recipe where the author simmered the hibiscus for 30 minutes. I don't see much difference so will use the shorter simmering time next time I make this ink-I really like this one.
My opinion now after making this hibiscus ink, is not to waste good tasting berries for ink but use hibiscus instead. I want to experiment with this one to see if I can shift some of it to a blue.
The brown stem was a surprise. The recipe I followed for the hibiscus, said one could get a lovely orange by adding turmeric. I divided what I had which ended up being 1/4 cup bottle of plain and the other 1/4 cup for adding in the turmeric. The recipe called for allot of turmeric-I added 8 teaspoons and still no orange, so I added in a tablespoon of soda ash-which instantly turned the mixture very dark. Figured this would end up as a black ink-surprise that pretty brown stem
The macha tea I used 2 ounces and added it to 2 cups of water. Brought it to a simmer and held for 10 minutes. I decided-not sure why-to add 2 teaspoons of vinegar after it was strained. There was allot of waste to this matcha as most of it did not totally dissolve-so the coffee filter captured allot of it. There was no color to the coffee filter
Here are a few of the journal notes
This one is the hibiscus with 5 minute simmer
Below is the coffee filter still wet-but dried this color, did not turn purple-wondering why is that??
and the matcha-I was tired by the time I did two batches of the hibiscus so forgot about taking photos of the matcha in the pan
This was a good ink making day. If you missed it the post before this one is a painting in my art journal with only botanical inks-one of my favorites so far
Happy Weekend!
Go Chiefs-sorry had to say it haha
Nice colours, the Hibiscus is my fave. You now have a great selection of colours! Happy Sunday, hugs, Valerie
ReplyDeleteI do thank you, I love the hibiscus too-so much easier to make then the berry inks
Deleteyou are having so much fun with your experiments it is like when you do natural dying of wool. I have done some of that but it takes so much to dye just a small amount of wool.
ReplyDeleteCathy
Yes I am having fun! Yes dying cloth takes so much more time as one needs to mordant the fabric first for the dye to adhere. I have done cotton too-which is a longer process than wool--these are more instant results. I just love these earthy colors
DeleteGo Chiefs!! :) I hear many on the team are sick...!! Hope thats not true and if it is they are well enough to play.. I wonder if there is a difference in light fastness between the berries and the hibiscus? Maybe one will fade easier? Anyway enjoying your experiments! Aaahhh golf... we came in last place out of 8 teams... oh well.. it was fun! Hugs! deb
ReplyDeletethat was the main goal in the end I think is to be together having fun!
Deleteyes allot of these colors will not hold for long periods without some sort of spray fixative, and most need to be out of sunlight too. I have not researched that as of yet. One of the first links I posted about the artist living in alaska that gave herself a 30 day challenge to make ink every day paints etc-and she had mentioned that. don't know what she used on her paintings
I don't watch any news so had not heard that about the players being ill-however that title game had many of their key players out injured and Mahomes was injured as well and they pulled it together-we'll see hoping it is an exciting game til the end.
Kathy, you are the Dye Queen! Lovely colors.
ReplyDeleteThat was me, Barbara. 😖 ugh Blogger!
ReplyDeletethank you Barbara-this was a good dye-paint making day for sure loved the resutls
DeleteI would have been by sooner, but I had to watch the Superbowl. I suspect you are as pleased with the final score as I was. Then I fell asleep in my computer chair while leaving this message. It was a LONG day here.
ReplyDeleteI have used hibiscus tea to dye fabric, but I have never tried to make ink. I can see how adding turmeric to hibiscus would cause brown. Pink and yellow could easily produce brown. It's all in the color theory.
I actually adore the color you got from the matcha. You should try that again because the color came out great! Sounds like a very productive day, dear.
Yes an exciting football game for sure! had not though of pink and yellow turning to brown-this is a soft brown too I like, the second day after making the matcha the green has darkened. it was a good art day
DeleteThey are all great! I just don´t have the patience. The older I get the less patience I have, a pain. I hope this is just a phase and I can do such wonderful things you do.
ReplyDeleteI "hated" chemistry" at school - this would´ve been a project to raise interest!
I would really love to teach teachers with blogger-fun! Creative and clever. And fun. Hugs to that. You are... mimimi, met me see... 35 years too late with this! ;-)
I did not have time for crafts much when I was working full time-and there were years of lots of forced overtime too like what you have. once retired I was finally able to explore making soap, dying with botanicals etc I try to keep learning now in more older years too hugs
DeleteWow.. so beautiful. Congrats on the Chiefs win.
ReplyDeletethank you that was an exciting game
DeleteThe hibiscus tea makes such a beautiful color. The matcha tea is also a nice green. I think matcha tea tastes like asparagus so better to use it for ink...smile. Hope you enjoyed the game. hugs-Erika
ReplyDeleteAfter I strained out the matcha-ugh I would not want to drink all that sludge-I am really happy with the lovely green too. the hibiscus made a more lovely ink than the berries the game was awesome!
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