the search for ethical color

welcome to the color journal

Creating ethical and regenerative art materials has been a passion project of mine for some time now. It’s not a new concept: plant and mineral based color has been with us since the beginning, and it wasn’t until 1856 when the first synthetic color was created. Natural dyes quickly fell out of favor for the long-lasting and cheap synthetics, but with these beautiful colors came severe pollution to our air, water, and soil.

Read on if you’d like to watch my rediscovery of natural color unfold, and learn the techniques for working with this ethically crafted material.

Resources and Tutorials

  • is natural ink right for you?

    Learn about the unique properties of natural ink and if it’s right for you and your project.

  • the basics of using plant + mineral ink

    Discover how this watercolor ink can be used, and how to apply modifiers that shift colors in exciting ways!

  • how to layer modifiers over ink

    Here’s a simple step-by-step photo progression of a flower made with Jasper Plant + Mineral Watercolor Ink, Mercury Ink Modifier, and The Moon Ink Modifier.

Ink Library

Click on the photo to learn more about each color.

dune

myth

daydream

umbra

jasper

Modifiers

Under Construction