Btw. If you carbonized cloth you don't have to grind so much. It almost automatically becomes a fine powder. It's more like soot in sheet form. Make it easier on yourself.
We used to use bones and when we didn't have enough of those we used 100%cotton handkerchiefs to get our carbon. We also used to make our own charcoal for drawing. We used to make a white charcoal as well. I love your channel. It takes me back to me and my siblings playing and making our own art supplies after cub scouts.
Some tips for selecting fully burned pieces of char in the future. They should be relatively small to ensure that they are the same all the way through. They should have an iridescent blue sheen on the surface. They should have a glassy or ceramic sounding chime when dropped on a hard surface. They should stick to your tongue when licked. They should make a clean sharp break when snapped in half.
my best suggestion is to make lamp black as done in antiquity. dirty flame (oil and anoxic burn) and a bowl to make lamp black, it's of 'airfloat' fineness and requires no grinding. Thats whats used to make ink sticks in asiatic areas
I've been collecting coffee grounds (used) to try and carbonise the same way you would with wood, thinking about that though, my bet is, if you start with a fine power of material, clump it together and bring the heat up gradually, it will be more uniform and might be more opaque once mulled with oil or some other binder. but soot is probably better though, I like this video because you go in depth, something I would like to do more. great quality video, always interesting to see other artists processes.
Thank you so much! I appreciate learning with you on your videos. I was impressed with you using the hot water to help sort out the courser particles. I've heard hardwood charcoal can be difficult to work with because of its' density, though the density might help give better coverage. Alder and Willow might be easier with their lower density. Have you considered getting or making a ball mill? It is supposed to crush powder particles into platelets which improves mixability apperently.
hi great content !!! I've once thought of scraping the naturally derived pigment material on a coarse surface (a big rock, a brick, a sandpaper) so to avoid the first rough grindings which are messy and sound really loud, although I haven't given it a try myself, but it would be a piece of cake with this soft charcoal chunk, it would be like sharpening your charcoal drawing stick but collecting the charcoal powder rather than throwing it away ...... its like drawing with pastels but collecting their powder from the paper.....it came to my mind once when I utilized a red stone to "draw" on a big rock, I observed and thought why not scrub it until you get your first pigment powder which you can later grind finer and clean it, it would be much more comfortable. So you might want to give it a try. I will of course when I'll find some space to do so. With charcoal chunk one could do it indoors, but maybe it could even happen indoors with rocks, using different sandpaper grits (but the again its the issue of breathing dust, although you could wet the whole process with water, just like wet sanding)..... Anyway that's my thought !!!
i was able to make it as fine as it can be in just 5 to 10 min. i grinded it in mortar but once it was done i was not satisfied with end result so i took it out and added little back to the mortar (key part is to add little by little) and added a bit of acetone in it and started grinding again. acetone evaporates pretty fast but what i was aiming for was some liquid that would help me grind it better. result was really good, now i just need to decide how to use it. charcoal had many uses back in the day and as i am trying to go this path, it might come quite handy some day
I really liked the warm redbrown black you got out of it! Out of curiosity, why not run the rough charcoal in a blender with some water or run it through an old coffegrinder to get finer particles to start with?
I was going to ask the same. I got a used coffee grinder and use it to pulverize rock ( after I’ve crushed with hammer or morter and pestle ) It’s worked well for me. Very small yields tho after sifting and levitating
just an idea: you coul try using Shisha charcoal or charcoal for burning church incense as long as it contains no additives. I tried beechwood grilling charcoal. Was not as hard to grind as the one in your video, but still not very easy to do, even in a granite mortar. It was a bit brownish also.
Greetings, sir! Could you please make a video focusing on oak galls and how is iron oak gall ink made? Making the ink myself is in my plans, but there is not much information of how it is done properly. I've read through treatises focusing on this, and I think it should be done the Alchemical way because I admire Alchemy and its part in the natural philosophy.
I have made charcoal oil paint. It seems like it still gives of black after it has dried. It doesn't seem very stable in oil and it fluctuate quick. How to I keep the pigment dispersed in the oil for longer. And how to keep it giving off black after it dried?. Love your channel.
I just found your amazing channel , very useful content ..can you please tell what's the difference between manufacturing of pastel colors and watercolors..what pinders used in both ..I mean the only difference is the percentage of gum Arabic used or there are another components that exist in watercolors and don't exists in pastels ? ,, thank you 🙏
You can make a pigment from the purple dye but it wont be light fast or as bright a colour as the raw cabbage dye looks. If you wish to experiment just add some Alum to the cabbage dye and the use sodium carbonate to precipitate the pigment.
Greetings from INDIA, Before watching your videos, we're not knowing about pigments extraction by making a lake, that's a very work which I turn triggered us to do work on these pigments. So, if it's possible for you and time permits, we have so many questions regarding the pigments, could you please tell me your contact details ot email address. It will be very helpful for us for future works. Thank you
