whetstone: — Subium • Bluesky web client

So, I have a bouquet of super dark purple-black irises and I was pinching off the faded blooms when I noticed one of them has dyed the wall 😬 so I scrubbed but then I tried the petals on watercolor paper and…

i took a class in making natural pigments and dyes and one of the things we learned is making a beautiful green ink from purple iris. i make weird collages by putting spent blooms on paper every year and the color is a bit fugitive. amazing range g though!!

that is this year, last year this happened:

Wow! Does the green come from the sepals rather than the petals?

Cool!

these are really cool, if i was to search and read more about the process what are the keywords i should be searching for?

i just pick the blooms off the plant when they’re closing up but still kind of plump, put them on a paper, and spray them w/water to help the dye spread. if you have the right iris color & stage you’ll know, they’ll leave marks on your hands and drip onto the paper

for actual iris green dye, there is a process i would have to look up

thank you :) @r4l.lucidillusions.in bookmarking to try this out :) I wonder if it works on otther flowers too :)

It totally does! Some better than others, but I’ve seen people make prints with the petals of roses, marigolds, calendula and more. You want anything juicy and highly pigmented. If it stains your hands it will probably stain cotton paper.

Yes, I think irises work really well because they are big, juicy flowers. More pigmented liquid to play with. I really love how the color you get on the page seems almost unrelated to the color of the fresh bloom. I got all those purples and greens from a primarily mauve flower.

Post