Madder Lake Making

Day 1

Table of Contents

Madder Lake Making
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Names: Joslyn DeVinney and Sau-yi Fong
Date and Time: 2016.10.24, 1:45pm-2:15pm
Location: Making and Knowing Lab
Subject: Making red (madder) lake--first steps

From class instructions:
Lake = An organic pigment prepared by precipitation of a dye on a powdered, inorganic substrate
Use recipe from Kirby et. al, Natural Colorants for Dyeing and Lake Pigments (2014)

Original recipe:
Ingredients
-2g coarsely ground madder root
-Polyester netting bag (or cheesecloth or something similar)
-60ml water
-1g potash alum
-0.4 potassium carbonate
-40ml water
-Water to wash

Procedure
-Enclose madder in a polyester netting bag large enough to allow the plant material to move freely and water to penetrate it
-Soak overnight in 60ml water in 100ml or larger beaker
-After soaking, heat solution to 70° C and extract dye at this temperature for 30 min
-Remove bag
-If necessary, filter while still hot through folded filter papers
-Add 1g potash alum to warm solution and heat to 80° C
-Meanwhile, make up solution of 0.4 potassium carbonate in 40ml water in 250ml beaker
-Add dyestuff solution to this alkaline solution very slowly, stirring constantly
-Check pH (should be about 6)
-Leave to settle overnight
-Next day, filter pigment and wash with water until filtrate is clear
-Filter to remove all liquid and allow to dry

Day 1 In the lab:
Triple original recipe

PPE: safety glasses, gloves, lab coat
materials low toxicity, very diluted

Materials:

Procedure:
1-Measure out 6g of madder root
2-Crush madder with mortar and pestle
3-Pour crushed madder into cheesecloth
4-Wrap madder in pouch and tie with twine
5-Put pouch in 180ml distilled water (in 250ml glass beaker)
6-Push pouch to bottom so it gets soaked in the water and doesn't float to top
7-Label, cover (used square of sticky wax paper) and leave overnight
8-Cleanup workstation

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1. Making the cheesecloth bag

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2. Struggling to get precisely 6g of ground madder root

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4. It took around 15 minutes to grind the madder root into powder form

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5, 6 Put the ground madder root into the cheesecloth bag and soaked it in water

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7.Covered the beaker with stretchy wax paper


Day 2

Names: Joslyn DeVinney and Sau-yi Fong (with assistance from Dr. Joel Klein)
Date and Time: 2016.10.26., 10:00am-11:45am
Location: Making and Knowing Lab
Subject: Second day of making red (madder) lake

Materials:

Procedure:
1-Heat solution to 70° C, keep at 70° C for 30mins to extract dye
2-Remove bag
3-Filter solution while still hot through coffee filter into beaker (we used 1000ml beaker)
4-Measure out 3g potash alum
5-Add potash alum to solution and and heat to 80° C
6-Measure 1.2g potash and add to 120ml distilled water in 600ml beaker
7-Add potash solution (from step 6) to dyestuff solution very slowly, stirring constantly (used wooden chopstick)
8-Check pH (should be around 6)
9-Cover (used sticky wax paper), label, and leave to sit over night
10-Cleanup workstation



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1,2 It was difficult to keep the temperature at 70° C for 30 mins. It fluctuated between 60° C and 80° C

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3. We used a chopstick to stir the solution so as to speed up the filtering process

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4. Measuring potash alum

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5. Put the potash alum into the solution and waited for the temperature to go up to 80° C

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6. Measuring 1.2g potash and added it into 120ml distilled water

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7. Pouring the madder root solution into the potash solution. We used a chopstick to help stirring and mixing them together

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8. Checking the pH value

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9. Covered the beaker with stretchy wax paper

Day 3

Names: Joslyn DeVinney and Sau-yi Fong
Date and Time: 2016.10.27, 1:00pm-2:00pm
Location: Making and Knowing Lab
Subject: Filtering and washing red (madder) lake

Materials:

Procedure:
1.Filter pigment
2.Wash until filtrate is clear
3.Cleanup

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1. We put a funnel and a coffee filter paper on top of the glass jar


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2. Poured the madder root solution into the filter and then added in distilled water. The water went through the filter really slowly and it took more than 30 min to complete our first wash.


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3. Poured distilled water into the filter for the second wash. We speculated that it might take another hour to finish the second wash. We decided to leave it there, as the water in the glass jar appeared to be pretty clear already.

Day 4

Names: Joslyn DeVinney and Sau-yi Fong
Date and Time: 2016.10.31, 12:45-2:15pm
Location: Making and Knowing Lab
Subject: Finishing lake making, painting out

Materials:

Procedure:
1. Scrape half of slightly wet pigment off of filter into separate piles, leave other half on filter to dry for next class period
2. Separate egg whites and yolks into separate plastic containers
3. Grind pigment with egg white, egg yolk, vinegar, lemon
4. Painting out
5. Cleanup

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1. We used a palette knife to scrape off the pigment from the filter paper

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2. Scraped off about half of the wet pigment and then further divided it into two piles, one for egg white and one for egg yolk

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3. Separated egg white and egg yolk. Prof. Smith used a sponge to turn the egg white into smoother, more consistent foamy liquid


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4. We tried mixing the pigment with different combination of egg white, egg yolk, vinegar, distilled water and lemon on the glass plate using palette knife and muller. We thought the difference between adding egg white and adding egg yolk was the most noticeable. Egg yolk made the pigment a little bit thicker and stickier but easier to blend consistently with lemon juice, vinegar or water, while egg white made the pigment really “slippery” and difficult to operate on the glass plate. Is egg yolk a better binding material than egg white?


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5. Painting out the pigment. We thought the pigment with egg yolk produced more solid color. We didn't notice any important change in the color or texture of the pigment after adding lemon juice or vinegar.