At Home Watercolor
By: Kendall Webber
You’re stuck in your room doing nothing for 5 days. You’ve watched all of the new shows and you have nothing left to do but be creative and find something entertaining. However, you have no craft supply. Well, lucky for you, I have found ways to make watercolor out of random things around the house. I started to look around the house for random objects with good pigment that could possibly make color and stick to the paper. When shuffling around the fridge and cabinets I found coffee beans, dried lavender, dried rose petals, raspberries, and avocado.
When snooping in the spice cabinet, I found some coffee beans and thought if it can stain clothes, it can stain paper. I brewed up some coffee and splattered it on paper to see how good the pigment would stain paper. The coffee ended up staining a warm brown, and it reminded me of old letters in museums. When testing the blend ability, it didn’t pass the test that well. Instead of fading to a lighter shade, it continuously stayed the same shade. To get a darker shade, you have to apply multiple coats for it to darken. Overall, this watercolor did work and made a nice warm brown color.
Now when looking through the fridge for more than just a snack, I saw raspberries. I threw raspberries into a blender with a few splashes of water, blended it up, strained the pulp, and kept the leftover juice. When the watercolor was drying, I noticed it wasn't pink or red, but nude purple! The coloring looked very nice and blended out a lighter color very easily! For getting a darker color, you'd have to put one layer over for a darker shade.
When looking for herbs or spices that could have pigment, I found dried lavender. I ended up just throwing it in a tea holder and letting it sit for 20 minutes to make sure it had a concentrated color. I was hoping for the lavender to make a purple color, but it turned a yellowish color instead. The blend ability was good. It looked nice, but like all of the other colors, you'd have to add more layers to get darker a color.
My second to last watercolor was dried rose petals. In hopes of a red color, I ended up getting a dusty rustic yellow that looked similar to the lavender paint. The blend ability was ok. It wasn't the best nor the worst, but still worked and looked nice. I ended up leaving in the pulp of the petals to see how it would look, and it gave a cute texture and old look to it.
For my last watercolor, I used an avocado peel. I remember when I was younger someone told me that avocado peel makes purple coloring and dye. I decided to try it and boil the cleaned avocado peel. It took about 20-30 minutes to get a dark rich color out of the peel. The blend ability was amazing along with the coloring. The color was a wonderful dark magenta color. When blending it out, it faded really easily and darkened without issue. When dried it ended up as a matte finish.
Overall the avocado peel has by far the best blend ability, pigment, and easiest to make.
In the end, this experiment was so much fun and a great way to test anyone’s creativity. I highly suggest putting your creativity to the test if you ever get the chance.