[Rockhounds] Larry Rush's "Ink Coloring" and "ConnRox" site (both)

[Douglas Turet]

Hi Larry,

     "Gee, I really like what you've done with the place!" Your new website is easy to maneuver, 
easy to see, and if you still have that Vermont Grossularite specimen this time, next week, I'll
see to it that you don't still have it on the following Monday! (There was one thing that stood
out as a possible 'faux pas', at least to my eyes: on the last page, you offer what appears to be a Rutile sixling
-- a notion further supported by the 60 degree twinning shown in the photo -- but have it listed as an "eightling". 
Am I missing something?)
     As for your friend's quest for natural mineral stains & dyes, both Malachite and Azurite make exceptional pigments,
 especially when finely pulverized and folded into a linseed oil carrier. For that matter, so does Lapis Lazuli, whose use
as such dates back several thousand years, at least, and was used by many of the Great Masters of the Renaissance and 
Romantic periods. Turquoise works well too, but the only carriers I know of which will not turn it green are denatured 
alcohol and things which, when dissolved in it, will not adversely alter this characteristic (like pale amber 
shellac and paraffin). Of course, the alcohol carries its own set of risks. Obviously, Cinnabar and Realgar are as 
notorious for their dyeing characteristics as they are for incautious users' "dying characteristics" {:o)! 
     Now, if she's willing to consider the use of natural _plant_ dyes, my youth in the 1960's and '70's might offer her some options...
Here are a few to get her started... 
     Crushed, unripe pokeberries yield a bright, light green (reminiscent of ripe celery), while their ripe iterations yield 
an intense, reddish "Siberian" purple. One caveat with the ripe pokeberries (and the leaves and stalks adjacent to them: once the berries turn 
purple, both their juices and those in the rest of the plant become toxic, and can be absorbed through the skin. 
(So, even if she _liked_ having hands that would seem to indicate she'd just robbed a bank, 
that notoriety could cost her in other ways!) Other easily foraged flora include sumac berries, whose clusters
will yield various shades of slightly yellowish red and pink (envision the shades of Mozambiqui Rose Almandine and Rose Malaya Garnets, at 
30% of their usual saturations, for the maximum saturations possible there), boiled maple, aspen, walnut and oak leaves 
will yield an assortment of browns (as will black teas, for slightly redder browns, and coffees, for slightly "weathered", grayish-
browns). Nice, bright oranges can be wrested from the crushed berries of the bittersweet, pale to pastel yellows, from forsythia 
and saturated chrome yellows, from goldenrod. As Al Balmer has correctly pointed out, Hawaiian red dirt will do a nice job of producing the russet-
browns, and, as anyone who's ever collected them (or their wives) can attest, so will both limonite and bauxite!
     Oh -- two more things about the sumacs -- if 
your friend _does_ opt to try the sumac berries, she'll need to know that the cilia on them can be a source 
of mild irritations for those with sensitive skin. To get around this, have her first dye the articles in 
question, then toss them in her laundry dryer's "air fluff" cycle on high heat (for colorfastness) with an old 
(previously cleaned) pair of canvas sneakers, or white tennis balls. These will have the same effect as caning an old carpet over a railing.
 And, finally, be sure she knows it's the tree-borne sumacs (whose opposite-pair leaf clusters 
almost exactly mimic those of the locust tree) she's after, and NOT the infamous West Coast ground cover, poison sumac. 
(Then again, if the proliferation of tatoos, body piercings and other self-mutilations I'm seeing lately is any indication, 
who knows? She might just find herself at the avant garde of an entirely new West Coast fashion craze, by 
offering clothes that not only wear well, but itch ferociously, too!) 

     Well, Larry, I think that that about taps my "natural dyes" reserves! I hope this info helps her out in her new endeavor, 
and please pass along my best wishes, to that effect!


All the best, 
Doug 

Douglas Turet, GJ 
Turet Design

P. O. Box 242 
Avon, MA 02322 U.S.A. 
Tel. (508) 586-5690 
Fax: (508) 586-5677 
Email: anotherbrightidea.AT.hotmail.com 




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