Recipes For Natural Homemade Dyes And Paints

This came up in another thread, and I know many here are interested in using less chemicals and more natural products, so I thought I'd share it here.

When we were children, we used to take family trips to historical sites. One of the things I learned there was that back before modernization, natural products such as berries were used to make dyes and paints. I always admired the colors in the homes we visited, and they were made with those natural products.

In case anyone is interested in learning how to make homemade paints and dyes, here's a link with some information on the subject. http://blogs.cornell.edu/garden/get...art/greener-arts/recipes-for-dyes-and-paints/

 

Pardon me if this is a segue, this reminds me of the first painting job done in our house. Not really well-versed with paint, we supervised the painting and even handled the purchase of the paint. With the color, of course, we decided on that. With the dark blue paint, we mixed some white to get a light blue color. I was the one who approved for the exact blue color - paint and tinting color is not easy to mix. When done, we give the can of mixed paint to our painters who are not really painters at all.

The roof and the gate were painted, all right. But after some years when we thought to renew the paint, we discovered that there is the blue color of paint called azure. It is the exact color that we got by mixing the paint with tinting color. In other words, all we would have done was to buy that particular color.

Here is that second painting job where we used the azure color that didn't need mixing of paint colors. Those are our housemaids helping the painter in that painting job 2 years ago...

 

That's a pretty color. In at least some shops, you can have them mix the paint for you, and they will keep a memory of the exact mixture, so that years later, if you decide you want more of the same color, they can readily mix it up for you. The market for paint types and colors has exploded along with the home and garden market, so there is a lot more to choose from than years ago.