Making traditional watercolour paint from egg shells || Natural & Traditional Sustainable Art

This academic year I started my PhD research at the Prince's Foundation: School of Traditional Arts in London. In my research, through a process of exploration and application of particularly the traditional Persian and Islamic art practices and materials, I seek to understand how contemporary artists might learn from these pre-modern masters to work in ways that are wholesome to themselves and to our planet.

In this video I am making very fine pigment from brown and white egg shells. I have been looking for a sustainable white pigment for a while, and thought this might be an insightful experiment. I followed the recipe from Secrets of Alessio Piemontese, 1557, which I found on artiscreation.com, and which is described as:
"(...) an incomparable white which cannot be surpassed by lead white or any other white in the world, if it is made carefully and well.." -(source:http://artiscreation.com/white.html#e....

I really like the resulting paint, although it is a bit transparent. But I solved this problem by a specific paint technique that creates some sort of puddles of paint, which dry more opaquely.

I used the paint from the finest white egg shell pigment to finish a painting, inspired by a carpet page from an old Quran. For this painting I used hot press watercolour paper which I stained with black walnut dye. (for the process of making this dye, see:    • Making Black Walnut Ink - Natural & Vegan ...  )
I then used egg white as a size for the paper and burnished it with an agate burnisher. This step makes the paper better suitable for using genuine gold.

For outlining I used black walnut ink and carbon black ink, and for the colours I used 24k gold and genuine lapis lazuli, as well as a bit of French ochre which I made in a previous video (see:    • Making vegan watercolour paint || A look i...  )


For more information about my work, visit:
www.elmahogeboom.com

Or support my work by purchasing something from my sustainable art webshop:
www.hightreesustainable.com


DISCLAIMER
Please note that this is an inspirational video, and not a tutorial. It is very important to take the appropriate safety precautions when trying something like this yourself. Even when working with natural materials, repeated exposure to dust, for example, can form a health hazard. So please inform yourself on appropriate safety precautions. If you are interested, there are some excellent courses I can recommend on the topic.


LINKS:
Prince's Foundation: School of Traditional Arts:
https://princes-foundation.org/school...

Islamic illumination:
www.islamicillumination.com


MUSIC:
Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):
https://uppbeat.io/t/sky-toes/the-lon...
License code: KHXXE9G2ETPS04S3
https://uppbeat.io/t/northwestern/hom...
License code: L1Q3OXM13QKCKVOU
https://uppbeat.io/t/cory-alstad/firs...
License code: XAIHWGB9IWTOH5IO

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© Elma Hogeboom 2023. All rights reserved.