Thanks to @Mobjack Bay 's wonderful experiments with madder (here) the idea arose to color white clay using an alcohol tincture (this method seemed to hold its color better than using the tincture straight up)
This is how I did it:
I made some tinctures in September using the method described here (soaking plant matter in ethanol or isopropanol for a wheek, straining it and letting it evaporate to half the original weight to increase the strength of the color). Mobjack Bay's method is a bit different and is described in her madder thread (she uses part water, part alcohol and boils down the liquid to a gel)
I soaked 5g of white kaolin clay in 10g of tincture for 5 different colorants (spirulina, moringa and wheatgrass infused ethanol, annatto and alkanet in isopropanol) and let the alcohol evaporate to create a colored clay (this took about 2-3 days).
I then made a slurry from the clay with 10g water per colorant and made slurries from green and pink french clays, also with 5g clay+10g water (+-1tsp clay +2tsp water).
Then I made a batch of soap with 500g oils, divided it into 7 portions, mixed in the clay and poured in the mold (I did a water discount for the water added to the clay). This is quite a lot of clay, 35g/500g is a bit more than 2tbs ppo, but this way I was using the same amount of colorant from the tincture I normally would and I've read some people like to use 2tbs ppo even though it's higher than the regularly suggested amount (I used this much in a soap once and it was fine, so I don't expect any problems with the soap itself)
These are the pictures:
White clay soaked in tincture (left to right: spirulina, annatto, moringa, alkanet, wheatgrass)
Dried out colored clay (look how the alkanet changed color!)
Added french green and pink clays for comparison
Added water to the clays
And finally the freshly cut soap
(Bottom to top: french green clay, french pink clay, spirulina, annatto, moringa, alkanet, wheatgrass)
The french pink clay wasn't mixed in properly, but did give a lovely color at this high percentage of clay. French green clay as well as wheatgrass are a soft kaki/muddy green, but overall the colors are brighter than I expected. Spirulina is a lovely vibrant green, annatto a delicate sunshine yellow, moringa is a softer green and alkanet is blue for the moment, but since it's pH sensitive I'll have to wait a week to see the actual color.
This is how I did it:
I made some tinctures in September using the method described here (soaking plant matter in ethanol or isopropanol for a wheek, straining it and letting it evaporate to half the original weight to increase the strength of the color). Mobjack Bay's method is a bit different and is described in her madder thread (she uses part water, part alcohol and boils down the liquid to a gel)
I soaked 5g of white kaolin clay in 10g of tincture for 5 different colorants (spirulina, moringa and wheatgrass infused ethanol, annatto and alkanet in isopropanol) and let the alcohol evaporate to create a colored clay (this took about 2-3 days).
I then made a slurry from the clay with 10g water per colorant and made slurries from green and pink french clays, also with 5g clay+10g water (+-1tsp clay +2tsp water).
Then I made a batch of soap with 500g oils, divided it into 7 portions, mixed in the clay and poured in the mold (I did a water discount for the water added to the clay). This is quite a lot of clay, 35g/500g is a bit more than 2tbs ppo, but this way I was using the same amount of colorant from the tincture I normally would and I've read some people like to use 2tbs ppo even though it's higher than the regularly suggested amount (I used this much in a soap once and it was fine, so I don't expect any problems with the soap itself)
These are the pictures:
White clay soaked in tincture (left to right: spirulina, annatto, moringa, alkanet, wheatgrass)
Dried out colored clay (look how the alkanet changed color!)
Added french green and pink clays for comparison
Added water to the clays
And finally the freshly cut soap
(Bottom to top: french green clay, french pink clay, spirulina, annatto, moringa, alkanet, wheatgrass)
The french pink clay wasn't mixed in properly, but did give a lovely color at this high percentage of clay. French green clay as well as wheatgrass are a soft kaki/muddy green, but overall the colors are brighter than I expected. Spirulina is a lovely vibrant green, annatto a delicate sunshine yellow, moringa is a softer green and alkanet is blue for the moment, but since it's pH sensitive I'll have to wait a week to see the actual color.
