While unpacking one of the last boxes (there are still n+1 left (n beeing the number of boxes I know about) I came upon a jar of dried elderberry sap.

On an sudden impulse I filled it up with water and a few moments later:



After a couple of hours and some vigorous shaking I had a whole bottle of elderberry sap.

I pomptly heated it up and put in some hydrous clay.
The result looked something like blueberry youghurt:



And after a few days the thing was totally dry - and looked like some lavender miniature of a dead, sunbaked desert. (I had a great picture for you - but I lost it. Shame on me)
And it behaved exactly like rock. Meaning: I could do nothing. Absolutely nothing.

As a last resort I added again some water and put it to dry, not in a saucer, but as a thin layer on a plastic bag.
The future remains exiting!

Let me tell you something about goldenrod.



It’s amazing! I put it in a pot, added a bit of water and some alum, and: puff!



YELLOW



I’m doing shell-paint at the moment and later it will be pigments again. Haven’t decided about which method to use but it looks promising.
More promising than the sunflowers ever did.

... that’s the result of the sunflower paint experiment:



It’s a pale, soft yellow, nearly white. I will try to make some watercolour, but I’m not optimistic about the outcome

... but pestle and a glass slab.

I’ve made a rule out of using the things I already have and not buying anything new. So far it’s working fine.

Here you can see what’s become of the geranium-tomato sauce:



I grind it with said slab and pestle,



making fine pigments which are alarmingly whitish.

But after mixing them with water and gum arabic they turn dark again and end up beeing a dark, burgundy red colour (wich I will show you some other time.)



The painting experience is a bit like painting with what in germany is called 'Wasserfarben' - you have to stir a bit to get some paint on your brush.

It makes me do things. Not only want-to but actually do-do.

Last weekend, sitting under a linden tree, I started collecting the seed vessels and now I’m going to stick pins into them to be able to thread them on a string later.
I’m in jewellery mode again.




And yesterday I went to not only fix my saddle but also to collect some goldenrod and elderberrys, so now it’s vegetable colour again too.

Do you see this?
The geranium sap shell (gss) is all crystal like a pretty little geode.

I took a lot of pictures, and you have to watch them ALL!




Do you know what’s great?



It dissolves really easy in water.



Making it very easy to soak up paint with a brush and ... well paint.



OK, there are just five pictures but I like them.

Guess what! I’m still collecting flowers (and other stuff) for further experiments.

A bunch of sunflowers.





The petals of a bunch of sunflowers in a pot.





The petals of a bunch of sunflowers with water and alum in a pot cooking slowly.





The petals of a bunch of sunflowers with water and alum in a pot cooking slowly, giving only marginal colour.





The petals of a bunch of sunflowers with water and alum in a pot, giving a bit more colour after more cooking.





The sap of a bunch of sunflowers after much cooking and adding some hydrous clay





The hydrous clay sap of a bunch of sunflowers after much cooking and dehydrating.





The dried hydrous clay sap of a bunch of sunflowers wayting for me to find me mortar and pestle.

Did I mention me beeing impatient!?!

The geranium stuff is still not finished.
As you can see, it dwindled, but ...



... still too much water.

So I brought it againt to the boil and led it reduce a bit. (As much as I dared)





Now it sits in a smal glass bowl looking like tomato sauce.





What’s next?