Gum Arabic Solution

[eller]

Just what the title says: I made my own gum arabic solution. I want to make my own watercolor binder (yes, I'm trying to save money XD what else?), which needs some more additives (glycerine and clove oil, neither of which I have at home - yet), but... This was pretty straightforward, and I thought I'd share some pictures of the process.

(Crossposted over at prototypediablerie, a community for DIY things.)

So, I went to the art supply store and bought me some tree blood. XD



Ahem. That's 250g of gum arabic, straight from the tree - and dirt cheap because it's straight from the tree. (I'm serious: there's pieces of bark still clinging to the gum, and I had to remove a small twig from the bag as well. This has seen exactly zero processing.)



I filled it into a large jar. Originally, it held instant coffee, but, well, that's gone already (and it was very nice, as far as instant coffee goes), so I can re-use it for my art supplies. Ironically, buying an empty glass jar of the same size (I think it holds a bit more than 500ml; I did not measure this) is more expensive than one with coffee in it, so, whatever - yes, yes, bean coffee is nicer than instant, but I refuse to pay extra for not getting any coffee! XD (And, anyway, the coffee was surprisingly nice, just needed some milk and sugar.)



I covered this with distilled water. This was probably a waste of distilled water - with all the crap that's swimming in this solution, taking tap water is unlikely to make any kind of significant difference in terms of trace elements and whatnot. Anyway, the dissolution happened very fast (a lot faster than I had been led to believe) and, within only a few hours, got this muddy result that admittedly scared me a bit at first. But, hey, that's what coffee filters are for, right? RIGHT?



TA-DAA! The result is clear and beautiful! :D It's not completely colorless, but neither is the "professional" solution I can buy, so... I guess it's just as good. It's a bit thinner (because, otherwise, I'd have no way to filter it without a high-tech apparatus) but that's okay, it dries just fine, just takes a bit longer. And, by the way, the chunks of gum arabic have not completely dissolved yet, so I simply refilled the jar and will hopefully get even more gum arabic solution. Which I'm going to need for my private watercolor production.

I'm very happy this worked so well. :3

Comments

[amberdreams]

Nice work! So did your previous watercolours work ok without binders?

[eller]

I had binders, just store-bought ones, not ones made from scratch. :) Those, of course, worked fine. I guess now I will find out (the hard way?!?) if I can reproduce the professional product...

[amberdreams]

Aha, I see! Well good luck, but I'm sure you can do it.

[light_of_summer]

Good wishes for it! 😏/\😊🤞

I'm enjoying the chance to see gum arabic in its natural state and to read your account of the experiment—thanks!

I had a vague memory of reading something about economically important tree exudates from the general region of Arabia, many years ago, so I went over to Wikipedia and read about gum arabic. I learned all sorts of interesting things, including that something like 10% of the population of Sudan was directly or indirectly supported by gum arabic production & trade activities until quite recently.

I also learned that I had Sudan and Somalia mixed up in my head. (Some gum arabic apparently does come from Somalia.) In honor of Somali expatriate singer & composer Maryam Mursal, whose music I've enjoyed, here's a link to a YouTube playlist for her CD called The Journey: https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lVleeGvIgZNX8pBHRbQvaIKD591z2iKaY&playnext=1&index=1

---

I now think the vague memory I had about tree exudates was probably about frankincense, rather than gum arabic. It's most likely that I learned about it from the writings of Freya Stark, notable traveller, writer, photographer, and WWII British propagandist in the Middle East.

I've really enjoyed a number of Freya Stark's books—notably her early travel accounts and her four-volume autobiography. I didn't find as much to enjoy in her post-WWII travel accounts—her writing style and aims for those seemed significantly changed.

I've also read a biography of her from 2010, Passionate Nomad: The Life of Freya Stark, by Jane Fletcher Geniesse. It was quite an interesting outside view of Freya Stark's life, but I didn't find it as charming or wise as her own writings. And, as biographies often do, that book highlighted all sorts of difficulties and causes for sadness in her life, where my favorites of her own writings emphasize her joys.

[eller]

Thank you for the music recommendation, I'm enjoying this! :D

I've never read anything by Freya Stark, but wow, that lady had an interesting life! Anything I know about gum arabic is from the chemistry context, I'm afraid... XD This is the first time I'm handling it in a form where you can still recognize the tree origin. (But, of course, I have some frankincense - it smells so nice!)

[light_of_summer]

Yay! I'm glad you like Maryam Mursal's music!

Freya Stark definitely had an interesting life. A tremendous part of that was that she was determined not to settle for the familiar, but to explore and connect with people in places that were new to her, despite the difficulties and risks that came with those choices.

[dragonbythesea]

Whoa, awesome. This is totally a thing I would put on my list of things to try and then never actually get around to doing. ;D

...And because I'm a few years out of touch with the watercolory part of my life, I need to ask: What do you actually do with this solution after the point where this entry ends?

(I did try Googling first, but everything that's popping up immediately is, like, whole posts about binder, and I am running on limited bandwidth this afternoon, hahaha.)

[eller]

Thanks! XD Yeah, I had this on my list of things to try for some time, but somehow, I never got around to actually doing it... I mean, I'm making watercolors on a regular basis (it's just so much cheaper than buying the stuff!) but making my own binder always sounded so complicated... Except, apparently, it's not. :D

"What do you actually do with this solution after the point where this entry ends?"

Things to do:

- Buy glycerine and clove oil. I've seen them online, so, that's not going to be a problem. They're sold as health / cosmetics products, so I'll see if I can get them even cheaper at the local drugstore.

- Add some glycerine to my gum arabic solution. I don't think this needs to be exact. Online sources say it's supposed to be 5 to 10 % but my gum arabic solution is very thin compared to the "professional" stuff (because I took a lot of water for the sake of easy filtering), so I'll aim for more like 2 or 3 % - I don't think it has to be exact.

- Add a drop of clove oil. (Really, not much more. It's just supposed to conserve the binder, so it doesn't get moldy or anything.)

- Hope this turns out to be a similar product to the ready-made binder I usually buy. (I will, of course, post pictures of my experiment.)

- Put pigment and binder in the mortar and mix.

- Let this dry a bit until a large portion of the water evaporates. Mix again. Fill in watercolor pans. (You can't fill the pans when the paint is still too wet: you risk the paint unmixing rather than drying properly. It should have at least the consistency of tube paints, though I usually aim for something even more viscous.)

- Wait impatiently while the pans dry.

- Wait some more. (This takes forever.)

- Paint pictures. XD