weld and tansy lakes : november ‘19
The weld plant Reseda luteola, sometimes called dyer’s rocket or dyer’s mignonette, is an herbaceous biennial native to southern Europe. Its primary colorants are the flavonoids luteolin and apigenin, which make clear, bright yellows. Weld has been used in dyeing textiles since prehistory, purportedly including the tunics of Vestal Virgins and the Lincoln green leggings of Robin Hood. It was favored with the designation ‘grand teint’ in seventeenth century France as the most lightfast yellow dye. Recipes for converting the yellow dye into a lake pigment certainly existed in the medieval period, and one is included in Cennino Cennini’s Il Libro dell’arte (The Craftsman’s Handbook), published in 1390. This weld lake is made from Reseda luetola grown in my New York garden with a small amount of eggshells added for opacity. This is a coarse grind: use a mortar and pestle to grind to a finer consistency.
Tansy, Tanacetum vulgare, is a perennial commonly found both wild and cultivated in Europe, Asia, and North America. It is a source of golden yellow dye, as well as an insect repellent and bitter herb. Restoration-era Brits enjoyed sweet omelets flavored with tansy juice, though over-indulgence in the slightly toxic dish should be avoided! The tansy plant that produced this lake pigment was a gift from the the studio garden of late neighbors, the abstract expressionists Pat Passlof and Milton Resnick. I suspect Pat planted it as a gnat repellent, but would be gratified to see it producing artists’ pigments.
* a note from Wild Pigment Project: half of this month’s subscribers were sent Weld Lake, and the other half were sent Tansy Lake!
contributor : natalie stopka
Natalie Stopka is a New York based artist focused on creative processes rooted in the materials and forces of the natural world. Her pursuit of historical surface patterning techniques includes natural dyeing, pigment extraction, marbling, and printmaking. These meticulous, layered processes incorporate materials grown in her studio garden, creating a seasonally evolving vocabulary of texture and color.
Photo courtesy of Natalie Stopka’s website www.nataliestopka.com
22% donation recipient : The Open Space Institute
This month, Wild Pigment Project donated 22% of Ground Bright’s net profits to The Open Space Instutute, Natalie Stopka’s donee of choice. The Open Space Institute partners with family farms, land trusts of all sizes, state and local governments and individual landowners to purchase land and easements for conservation, from New York to Florida. Since 1964, they’ve protected more than two million acres, with a focus on the Northern Forest, the Hudson River Valley of New York State, New Jersey, Western Massachusetts, and the Southern Appalachians. OSI helps accelerate conservation by providing small land trust organizations with low-cost bridge loans for land transactions.