More on inks and dragon's blood

I have now had a chance to play with the "inks" which have been thickened with gum arabic.

The colours are a little more muted than before and I think slightly dulled which is what Michelle Wipplinger in her booklet on dyeing with the extract dyes says happens with gum arabic but the consistency is different from dyes thickened with gum tragacanth which is what I use for printing and stencilling. I had a friend with me and we spent the afternoon playing with the inks and she found it disppointing that the inks did not move and blend in in the same way as unthickened ones. I quite like the fact the dyes stayed more where they were put instead of flowing into one another! Here is my study of a decaying leaf-part of a series for a wallhanging in gossamer felt of floating leaves. The quite bright orange was a cheat! I made it up by dissolving 1/4tsp of annatto extract in 50ml of hot water.

So first of all I need to make up the gum arabic properly - jsut dissolving it in hot water not heating it. Then I think I need to make more intense colours both the saffron,and the logwood were disappointing and I think Imight have a bash at making a red as the cochineal and tin still went more to the pink so mixing cochineal and madder possibly. Although on it's own madder makes a disppointing paint givng a dull pink

I have now got one of the books recomnended by Dorothy- The Artist's Handbook of Materials and Techniques by Ralph Mayer. This book came very quickly via Abe books the other one on medieval inks has not yet even been acknowedged by the seller which is rather annoying. So I am busy reading and making notes. Sometimes I wonder whether I have bitten off more than I can chew but this is probably becuase I am suffering my third illness in two weeks - this time a nasty cold.

Dragon's Blood.
This one really intrigued me. I was reading up on Mediera as DH and I are going there for a holiday shortly, and it was mentioned that before Mediera was settled by the Portuguese, sailors used to visit the Island for a dye known as a dragon's blood which was a tree resin. I turned to Cardon, the only mention of it here was in passing as part of an old recipe for pink and she called it dracaena cinnabari (balf) but John and Margaret Cannon in Dye Plants and Dyeing said that dragons blood was the resin from sanderswood. It might be nice to know more but I am not sure where else to look. It would be fun to get some dye when I am on holiday, but it is unlikely I thinks as apparently the land was extensively cleared.