Orange Peel Ink Results

   It was a busy morning, and with rain mid day, I decided after our 2 pm main meal I would make the mandarin orange peel ink. This is recipe I used 

   At the end of the recipe she said to use baking soda to thicken-I believe that is a mistake.  I will be using the gum arabic instead.  Like with the avocado ink for the soda ash-that brings out the color I use Arm and Hammer Washing Soda instead-so much easier to come by, you will find it in the laundry detergent aisle, same ingredient and less expensive too.  One will not get the colors without using this in some of these inks.

  So for the most part I am following  her recipe bring to a boil-add the soda ash and then "cook" for 30 minutes. I brought the temperature to a low simmer. I tested the color 4 times, right away and then every 10 minutes. As I am typing this up waiting for the 30 minutes-I see a pretty useable color but not the pretty clear yellow as in the link. I will  wait and see--that is the fun part of working with botanicals either for ink or dye.

   Her recipe was vague as there were no quantities of orange peels listed and she said to add 2-3 tablespoons of the soda ash. I added  3 since I had a really full pot of peels but I think I would have gotten more towards yellow only using 2 tablespoons

Update:

  Results-no yellow sigh, but I did end up with a useable ink and some for watercolor paint. I filled two of the 4 ounce bottles I had purchased for inks, and grabbed another jar for the rest-can use that for a watercolor paint.  I ended up towards a yellow brown.

  In my experience with natural dyeing with botanicals it can be a challenge to achieve a clear yellow-it took me four fall seasons to finally obtain a lovely yellow from goldenrod at our woods home-by Not following the instructions and pulling the fiber as soon as I saw the yellow.

  I will try this again in the future, but I will add a little bit of the soda ash at a time-test for color-and then Not cook for 30 minutes, I thought that was way too long for this but I decided to follow her instructions for this first attempt. and she shows a pretty yellow.

Photos:

It would have been better to stop cooking at this point

Test strips-you can see more of yellow-although not a clear yellow in the first 10 minutes. After that went to brown-yellow

Saved the coffee filters-I bought a package of these smaller ones-ended up with 3 of these for art projects.

Still warm, whole clove added with drops of wintergreen essential oil for a preservative

I grabbed a watercolor brush-to see this on watercolor paper-still wet

This is glass dip pen and the ink-It will work for slow mail writing or art practices

I am a bit disappointed in myself that I did not fall back on my knowledge of achieving yellows but it's all good-always enjoy a project like this and did end up with a useable product.

  Am off to write this up in my journal while still fresh in my mind

Happy Creating