In the latest round of learning, I dove into the exciting realm that contains pigment! I used a linter of unbleached Abaca fibers and went through several rounds of blending. Each batch was blended for 5 minutes. Prior to mixing the pigment into the fresh batch of Abaca, I added retention aid to assist the retention of pigment in the fibers. I mixed two separate colors; the first batch was red with a hint of yellow. Since the ratio of yellow to red was pretty low, the results ended up looking like bright pink, instead of orange. The second batch used black pigment, I had some vague ideas of combining the colors, I wanted something that would make the pink seem bright.
The biggest issue I had during this session was the amount of fibers in the vat. I pulled two sheets and the mix was already too thin. I ended up adding the black fibers to the pink batch to add volume and see how the colors would mix. It resulted in a deep, exciting purple!
In hindsight, I should have beat more fibers and went through the pigmenting process again. This way I could have had enough to pull some slightly thicker sheets. Many of my sheets were too thin and resulted in them coming apart as I tried to remove them from the pelon once dried. I intend to continue experimenting with pigment while also including various fibers and experimenting with the ratios.
Until next time!
