How to Make Watercolor Paint from Flowers

Upcycle deadheaded flower parts into beautiful, natural watercolor paints that are a cinch to make.

By Gina Napoli
Updated on June 30, 2023
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by Janice Stefko

Can you make paint from flowers? Learn how to make watercolor paint using deadheaded flowers from your garden or other blooms foraged from nature.

Whenever I walk through my garden, I find something withered that needs pruning. Removing those “deadheads” makes room for new plant growth. Whether it’s a green weed or a colorful flower, Mother Nature demands constant turnover. Depending on which flowers I harvest, the deadheads can be fine additives to tea, handmade paper, or a batch of soap. But when the shriveled blooms still look robust with color and I’m feeling crafty, I use them to make biodegradable watercolor paints.

Why Make Paint from Flowers

You may think making your own watercolor paints isn’t worth the time and effort. Like other small-price consumables, such as homemade ketchup or butter, it’s easier to buy them at the store. But much like growing your own food, when you create and use your own paints, you become familiar with the ingredients and their origins, making yourself part of the product. Crafting your own watercolor palette and upcycling plant parts that would otherwise be discarded will help connect you to nature’s life cycle, especially if you make paint from flowers from your own garden.

The process will also connect you to peoples who came before. Plant-based textile dyes and inks have a long and storied history. Back before you could trek to the craft store for art supplies, every culture in every time period had methods of extracting pigments and dyes from things they found in nature. Native Americans made yellow paint from buffalo organs. Early Mayans made their trademark blue from indigo plants, clay, and resin. And many cultures, past and present, feature cochineal beetles in their red dyes for food and clothing (Red 4).

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