Paint The Sky A Daring Color

Gem is super pleased that the lesson is going well! Ignita appears to be picking up the idea of the paints quickly. Now came the harder part.

“This next part will take time,” she begins, wiping her paw off on some cloth before stepping to move over to the other items needed. “So you will want to make sure that you have a pot, cauldron, metal or stone container of some sort heating water over a fire,” Gem points a dainty paw to the fire that her companion now tends to. Steam can be seen curling up into the air from the pot that hangs over it.

“Then you will also want to have, of course your berries,” she giggles as she points to the mound of berries. “You will also want something that can strain the berries. Your market will probably have material thin enough to use or if you need to be resourceful, large leaves can sometimes be used or there is cloth at human ruins that is sometimes in good enough condition to use,” Gem motions now to the large clay container where a thin piece of cloth lay draped over it.

“I had Hem do the easy part so we don’t have to wait. The first part is boiling the berries,” she motions for her canine companion to bring the boiling mixture of deep magenta over to them. “It is like tea - which side note, tea can be used for ink as well. The longer you steep it, the deeper and darker the color. If you want a lighter color, don’t boil it as long. I wanted a deeper color to really show you the true pigment,” Gem smiles before directing Hem to pour the contents over the thin cloth and bowl. The splash and loud hissing sends her head leaning backward but only just enough to avoid being burnt.

“As you see, you’ll want to pour it over the cloth slow enough that it doesn’t get sucked into the bowl with it. Then,” she motions Hem to step back so she can have Ignita do the last part. “”We strain all the not liquid bits out to make a true paint! So if you want to give it a try, you’ll gather up all the dry edges of the cloth, bunch them up and then give it as hard as a squeeze as you can!” Gem lifts her paws to motion the movements Ignita would need to use.