Peggy Heer on sat 26 sep 98
Hi Guys and Gals...have my own personal biologist friend , lucky me, and
asked him about the black walnut solution and if there were other sources
that could be used to get similiar results. Re: the CM article out of
Africa. (Info asked for by a Clayarter recently.) Here is his
response...and good luck with your experiments. ;>}}
-------------
Here is some information on tannins that I hope may prove to be useful:
Tannins are widely distributed in plants and fruits. They are water soluble
and are generally extracted by boiling the plant parts in water and letting
the mixture soak for a few days to extract them. Oils extracted along with
them therefore float on the water surface. They are astringent and give
characteristic precipitates with salts of certain metals particularly ferric
(iron) salts. On boiling with dilute acids (eg. vinegar) they are converted
into brown and red colours. Commercial sources are generally from oaks,
particularly the bark, leaves and acorns. Acorns are soaked in water to
remove the tannins to make them edible. Other sources are grapes, tea,
chokecherries, some crabapple varieties and walnut husks and bark. You might
want to try oak, since one species should be present in Edmonton as well as
chokecherries, particularly the pits. Grape tannin is available from wine
making stores and is used to give flavour to red wines so I don't know how
it would work as a clay dye. Of course, as I had mentioned, walnut oil
should be available from furniture finishing stores as it is used to finish
salad bowls etc. that are used for food. It might also be worthwhile to
check out some weaving-type stores as a lot of weavers use natural plant
products to dye their wool etc. I know that onion skins, lichens etc. are
used for this process. Anyone that you know in Eastern Canada should be able
to get you walnuts with the husks still attached. I may be able to collect
some acorns here for you if the Blue Jays haven't got them all. I have an
oak in my yard. Oaks are very common in Manitoba
If we knew what we were doing, we wouldn't call it research!
Kindest personal regards,
Terry
Peggy Heer / Heer Pottery E-Mail p4337@connect.ab.ca
52120 Range Road 223
Sherwood Park, AB. Canada T8C 1A7
Phone (403) 922-6270
http://www.ffa.ucalgary.ca/artists/pheer/
http://www.connect.ab.ca/~p4337/
| |
|
