From Plant to Pigment: How to make your own vibrant inks, pastels and paints

a studio manual by Natalie Stopka
forthcoming from Skittledog Books in October, 2025

The many plants that surround and sustain us are rich with color. With a little alchemical know-how, you can transform the brilliant hues of our botanical companions from liquid dye to granular pigment, supplying myriad artistic uses as paint, ink and pastel.

Today’s art suppliers are stocked with very refined and chemically pure colors. But for those of us seeking sustainability and ecological connection, they are very far removed from nature. Inspired by the history and craft of color-making, Natalie Stopka is an artist and educator known for her explorations of handmade pigments. In From Plant to Pigment she invites us into her studio, sharing the ways she has divested her practice of non-renewable synthetics in favor of the craft of homegrown color.

Natalie's recipes transform natural dyes into vibrant and stable lake pigments. Explicating the fundamental techniques and chemistry of lakes, this book extends the applications of natural dye colors into expanded artistic media. Artists are empowered to concoct their own pigments, paints, and pastels from botanicals, with sections including:

• Botanical sources: cultivating, foraging, harvesting and storing dye plants

• The studio larder: essential equipment and ingredients

• Lake pigments: including Natalie’s master lake pigment recipe

• Other plant pigments: charcoal and indigo

• Artists’ materials: using your botanical pigments to make an array of artists’ materials