This post was on the shorter public Facebook group, kindly posted by Mandana Barkeshli. The paper was researched and written by Mandana Barkeshli, Marinita Stiglitz and Sadra Zekrgoo. I am ever so grateful to them for providing this information! Enjoy the peacock ink recipe especially, and see if you can make this beautiful deep peachy pink dye (safflower plus alkaline) - I'll work on this too, maybe in summer when it's hotter.
Wow, arrowroot starch! How do you prep it? Do you cook it like flour?
I enjoy running tests on sizes for optimum line finesse (lack of bleed) and starch and animal glues are great. I'd love to try serish someday, and cucumber mucilage. I'm growing hollyhocks for the purpose, too.
The bleeding upwards reference was concerning color seeping upwards into layers painted above with wet-ish colors. You're right, though, I should assume it stays put and doesn't migrate upwards, since tea stain doesn't, and it wouldn't have survived as a paper dye if it did. It's just astonishing that such a brilliant color should stay put!
I think if it's lasted all these years and was a traditional colour, it must be lightfast and permanent. I would hope so! A whitewash Mughal technique would work yes, though not sure what you meant by 'bleed upward' (unless the paper was tilted?). Wasli... I have a stack, I was given it as a present and I like it for some things only, but generally prefer the thinner papers actually! They have more of a manuscript feel as if they could really go in books. Either hot pressed watercolour or thinner Khadi handmade papers yes.
Sizing - plant starch (not egg), wheat/corn/arrowroot starches I'm using at the moment (rice/potato/tapioca etc all fine though - just not in stock in my studio, that's all!)
Wow! That is gorgeous. Is it lightfast and permanent -- doesn't modify colors painted on it? If it does bleed upwards, I suppose one could flash large areas to be painted with white first, burnished down well, like in Mughal technique. Will you make wasli, dye it, then size and burnish? Or will you use a piece of HP watercolor paper and stain, then burnish? What is your favorite sizing material?
Vaishali, this is FABULOUS! Thank you so very, very much! I have searched for more precise recipes for sizes and colorants and these are some of the best yet. I've searched for prepared serish, too, but without success. Will have to grow my own Eremurus, I guess -- they are gorgeous, but do take up a bit of space and like full sun and it would feel cruel to dig up their roots. (I am growing hollyhocks for sizing, though.) I am very keen to make my own wasli and experiment with sizes. Paper is exquisite stuff. There is a whole alchemy of paper, and a search for the perfect paper. I look at the Mughal miniatures of the past and wish such magnificent paper existed today. Alas! I wonder if something like it can be made?