Dates: 10/24, 10/26, 10/27, 10/31 (FA16)
Location: Making and Knowing Lab
10/24
- The madder used for this reconstruction was prepared by Charles Kang and Isabella Lores-Chavez. They crushed 6 grams madder root using a mortar and pestle and left it to steep in 180 ml distilled water around 2:00pm on 10/24.
10/26
- Initial observations: Tianna and I noticed that the steeped madder root/water smelled earthy and pungent. More specifically we thought it smelled like wet potatoes.
- We set a hot plate to the lowest setting and placed the beaker of madder/water solution (with the “bag” of madder root still in the beaker) on top. The solution reached 70 degrees Celsius at 10:39 AM.
- We found it difficult to maintain a constant temperature of 70 degrees. Accordingly we had to repeatedly take the beaker on and off the hot place. Over the course of the 30 minutes of heating, our madder/water solution fluctuated between 66 and 77 degrees.
- 11:09 AM - we removed the sack of madder root from the heated solution filter the hot liquid through a coffee filter. Filtering took quite a while, and, being impatient, we decided to squeeze the last bit of water through the coffee filter, which may have pushed more madder solids through the filter than otherwise would have been, thus apparently resulting in a slightly deeper color.
- 11:42 AM – we added 3 grams of Potash alum to the filtered liquid and then heated it until it reached 80 degrees Celsius.
- o Meanwhile, we combined 1.2 grams of potash with 120 ml distilled water. We noticed that the potash did not dissolve very well in the water.
- After the filtered madder/water/potash alum liquid had reached 80 degrees, we combined this with the potash/water mixture. The liquid bubbled and produced a rather opaque, pink solution.
- o Tianna and Joel had the idea of comparing the pH of the madder solution before and after adding the potash/water mixture. Below you can see the pH measured by litmus paper for both the “madder/water/potash alum” liquid (on the left) and the “madder/water/potash alum/potash” liquid (right). You can see that adding the potash/water mixture made the solution less acidic.
10/27
- Having left our solution to sit over night, we started filtering it through a coffee filter at 1:15 PM on 10/27.
- It was filtering rather slowly, so at 1:56 PM we decided to pour water through the filter for its initial “wash.” To my surprise, it was flowing much more quickly this time around, and the filtered liquid in the jar was roughly the same cloudy pink color as the liquid in the filter itself. This caused us to worry about a possible rip in the filter (I may have poured the water a bit too vigorously through the filter). Indeed, when we removed the filter through the cone, there was no obvious rip, but we did see pigment solids seeping through, indicating a micro-tear.
- So, I put the ripped filter in another filter and poured the cloudy mixture back through more slowly and carefully this time. The liquid filtered much more slowly and produced a pale pink and yellow-ish liquid (the jar labeled “wash #1” in the photo album at the top of this page). Tianna conducted a second wash, which left a very clear liquid (“wash #2” in photo album)
- The filter containing the pigment was left to sit until the following Monday, 10/31.
10/31
- The pigment had dried significantly since 10/27, but it was still rather wet. Thus, we were instructed to paint out the madder pigment only using egg yolks and whites rather than oil.
- Having scraped about half of the damp pigment out from the coffee filter, we experimented with three painting trials. The following ingredients for each trial were combined using a glass “muller” on a glass plate:
- Madder lake pigment + 1 drop egg yolk
- Madder lake pigment + 1 drop egg yolk + 1 drop white vinegar
- Madder lake pigment + 2 drops egg white
- While preparing these mixtures, I noticed that they always seemed like a nice, loose consistency during the mulling, but that they tended to thicken slightly and clump up when I began to paint. This meant that only quick, short brushstrokes were possible. Perhaps this has something to do with the drying properties of egg whites and yolks. That being said, the egg yolk + white vinegar trial produced the smoothest and least viscous mixture.
- Below you can see trials 1, 2, & 3 painted out from top to bottom, respectively. The color did not vary greatly between the trials. If you zoom in on the pictures, you can see that cracking occurred in all trials. Moreover, it appears that cracking was greatest in areas where the paint had been applied most heavily (note the absence of cracking in areas where the color is lighter).
