natural paint

[killir duck]

does anybody know of any natural stains/paints that can be made from plants that commonly grow in southeast Montana? we have a lot of sagebrush, yucca, a few ash, cottonwood and ponderosa pine trees, willow, chokecherry, buffalo berry, cattail, crested wheat grass and prickly pear i'm wanting stain or paint for camo on a plains indian style bow.. thanks in advance,

   Duck

[killir duck]

hmmmm.... maybe shoulda put this in the primitive skills section

[Joec123able]

If you have walnut trees you can make stain from the walnut hulls

[killir duck]

nope no walnuts around here

[Joec123able]

You can also make dye from Osage dust

[M-P]

You might look for patches of colored clay.   Yellow clay (ochre) of course gives yellow.  When heated ochre usually turns reddish, so it can give a red as well.   Other colors of clay may be available if you keep your eyes open.  The clay needs to be dried, ground very fine and mixed with hide glue, linssed oil, or something similar to become "paint".  Blackberries can provide a dark purple, though I note they're not on your list.
Ron

[killir duck]

thanks m-p i'll keep a look out for it

[Jodocus]

For a camo I suppose you're looking for green, brown, black, tan?

I've tried a couple of berries and leafes as dyes, and while the fresh paint often looks great, it will quite quickly turn brown. In fact, most plant dyes that I tried turned brown within this year, even the green ones. Walnut is great, and it is already brown From walnut, you can make a watery stain, that remains translucent.

Clay and coal is way better for covering paint. Also, ground iron compounds, comon rust as well, make good red. But you really have to grind away untill it is fine as dust. Don't sneeze. For the sticky stuff, I've tried linseed oil, egg, but I found curd is best, but it must be t low fat, else it won't dry.

For the green I think it will be difficult to find a good green stain.

[IsaacW]

For the green I think it will be difficult to find a good green stain.

That green scum that builds up in a water tank, dog dish, etc. makes a reasonable stain.

IW

[half eye]

I spent some time looking into the paints used in the Great Lakes region, specifically the northern Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin and southern Canada. There are quantities of minerals here that only occure here so that wont do ya no good. But they did also mention the medium for the pigments and the most common was fish roe glue. They even used it for some the petroglyphs along the Lake Superior shoeline. They are still very colorfull to this day. Wont help on the actual elements to grind but the fish roe glue may be benificial to you.
rich

[Squirrelslayer]

You can also make dye from Osage dust

i was going to say the same but from shavings, not from experience but from another thread. if your looking for green mush up some leaves. add lots of water and squeese through a cloth. SS

[autologus]

Green stain can be made by taking grass in a pestle with sand and alcohol, grind and filter the liquid then repeat with fresh grass using the previous alcohol to concentrate the chlorophyll.  I am not sure how photo stable the stain will be over time but it should make a deep green stain if concentrated enough.

Grady

[killir duck]

thanks for the help guys, I've heard of stain being made from charcoal but couldn't find much on the internet about it so yesterday I made I little bit of charcoal then ground it up into a powder and mixed it with hide glue, then I tested it on a little scrap of ash and let it dry it stained the wood a very light grey color I think maybe I had to much hide glue and not enough charcoal, or perhaps something else would work better for a binder then hide glue? anybody know if scorio rock could be used?

[Otter]

My brother made dye stain by adding steel wool into a jar of white vinager after two weeks to a month it turned dark red, he put it ond a osage bow and it made it look like red oak stain finish.

[Carson (CMB)]

For your charcoal....grind it up fine as possible with mortar and pestle, or coffe grinder if your wife is so forgiving, then mix with water, let sit for 5 min and pour off.  Save the pour off and let that settle overnight, it has the super fine stuff you want.  It should settle on the bottom and you can decant most of the water.  Repeat a couple times if you want finest possible black pigment.   Start out with a lot of charcoal so you end up with at least a little.    I use hide glue as flux, but I bet salmon roe would be way better.  Gotta try that one.

Fish eyes are supposed to be a good source of black pigment.