Lightfast yellow color, Harvesting Thyme, Planting Weld & Indigo

In my quest for lightfast yellow color, I usually use earth pigments. Those are notoriously long-lasting. They’re also earthy, beautiful in their own way and I love them. But sometimes I crave brighter, clear colors. Those are usually only found from plant sources, which are notoriously short-lived. But since beginning this journey of experiments, I’ve found a couple of plants that offer very good and long-lasting colors. One of those sources gave me a yellow but I could never reproduce it. I figured out why – I’d attributed the color to the wrong plant in a mixture I’d use to make the first paint. Find out more about that at a previous post.

Today I’ve been working on a new batch of yellow pigment from Thyme. And while I’ve been doing that, I’ve also been taking videos so I can make a little YouTube series about how I’m doing it. It’s an experiment, though (both the making of the pigment and the making of the video series). The first one is up there now. I made a post the other day with more information about they yellow I’m making, but at that time I’d only made a tiny amount for testing. During this round, I’m trying to record video of my process.

Here’s the video schedule. When they’re uploaded, I’ll add them to this list:

• Part 1 shows harvesting and bundling the thyme for drying.
  • https://youtu.be/Hr-_q8rZn6E (the one above)
• Part 2 shows stripping the leaves and making the extract
  • https://youtu.be/GjXjjaTTxdE
• Part 3 shows how I precipitated the pigment
  • https://youtu.be/ksy_22ccwmo
• Part 4 shows how I make an oil paint with it (that’s this video)
  • https://youtu.be/I0dwqcm0kDs
• Part 5 shows me using it on a painting (it will be a while before I make this one)

Making new garden beds

I’ve started some seeds for weld and indigo. If they sprout, I’ll need somewhere to plant them. So I’ve been working on a new bed in my garden. Doing anything out here in the Ozarks usually means dealing with rocks. My garden is no exception. In fact, it is mostly rocks. I’ve just rearranged them to hold soil for garden beds. Before I make new beds, I usually have to make new pathways first. That’s the part that is hardest, and that’s where most of the rocks go. In the photo below, I’m building a raised pathway to access the wall to the right. There’s one bed started on the lower tier, and once those are done I’ll add another tier or two above it.

Peonies grow nicely in that vertical space with just a few rocks to hold their place until they establish. But weeds do, too. So I put down the cardboard and it helps to keep the weeds down until I can get it covered with shredded/chipped tree trimmings. These new rows will be for the weld, for another lightfast yellow color, and indigo for blue.

If the weld and indigo grow enough before the first frost arrives, I’ll try making another yellow from the weld and blue from the indigo. And if those two work out, or at least the indigo, then I can try making green from a combination of the indigo and either weld or thyme for yellow. That’s an exciting prospect – to be able to add blue and green, and a clean yellow to my palette. I’ll be testing the lightfastness of them all. So far the yellow from thyme is doing great with the sunlight exposure.