Limewash with nettle pigment

[PuckOfPooksHill]

Anyone made limewash pigment with nettles? I am wondering about method and quantity per e.g. 20 litres of limewash. Also whether the nettles need to be used only at a particular time of year ... Young leaves versus old, whether flowering heads can be used etc. I presume these matters affect the colour, but wonder whether they affect the quality? The front of our half timber house has just been repaired and lime rendered and the black sandblasted off the beams. The first few coats will be limewash and I would like to try making a dye for the last couple of coats from a local material.

 

[aockenden]

Nettles? That sounds pretty awesome. What colour does that produce? Where did you learn about that initially?

 

[Flyfisher]

I've no idea about how to do any of that but if I could somehow monetise our nettles I'd make a small fortune

More seriously, I imagine it would be quite difficult, maybe impossible, to colour match such a DIY process so I'd want to be sure of making a sufficient quantity to do the whole job.

 

[PuckOfPooksHill]

The, very keen, lime plasterer has been telling me about making nettle dye. It is a kind of subdued green/brown. Anything I read on making the dye depends on length of time you steep/simmer. I love the idea and am not too bothered about having uniform colour. I would want to know how to make enough for the batch of lime wash. I think I need more details from the plasterer. He last encountered someone eager to make their own traditional tints from local materials 20 years ago and they used soil and charcoal apparently .... she now works for the National Trust.

 

[Stevers]

Subdued green/brown sounds like the kind of colour you'll get anyway after a while, and no harm in that!

 

[paulc]

I've messed around using dry pigments with lime plaster. It is a big issue getting the pigments fully mixed in to avoid colour bombs. I've now switched to liquid colourants to achieve what I want.
Stewing nettles would also avoid any issue caused by mixing - Just make sure the soup is well filtered first. As for quantities required, I suspect you are on your own on that. One thing that will make a big difference is the lime putty used. Singleton Birch has a creamy hue to it, whilst the Ty Mwar stuff that I had was distinctly grey. Mike Wye's own brand is a brilliant white (or at least the batch I had was).