Rock to Pigment

I started a tradition to always bring back a rock. This way the traveling wouldn’t end. I would return home, yes, but a piece of where I’d been would return with me. The rock would be labeled, placed on a shelf, and slowly I began to have an organic map of the places I’d visited through the years…California, Arizona, New York, North Carolina, Texas, Alaska. And splattered in there some more exotic places too, Indonesia, Jamaica, Japan, Portugal, Italy, France… Each rock was different. It captured a story of the place it came from…the soil color, the texture, the ribbon like veining, the colored pigment it left behind on my fingers…

Colored pigment….hmmm…. and I began to wonder, could I perhaps capture my travels in another way as well?

I begin to research. “Rock to Pigment”. I found stuff. I found methods. I found books. I found inspiration. I found tools. The rabbit hole I went down was long and winding. I LOVED IT! So I hammered, and crushed, and ground.

I sifted. I ground again. I ground again. I ground again. I got muscles in my arms because of the grinding. I learned about something called “water levigation” to separate the heavier impurities from the finer pigment particles. Super geeky stuff.

I love geeky stuff.

And suddenly those rocks weren’t just rocks anymore. They were a form of medium to create with! It made me look at a simple rock in a whole new way.

Finer pigment separated from the courser, sandy pieces

So I filled up little jars with the newly crushed pigment powders, placing a piece of the parent rock with each one and writing a label so I could remember it’s source. Now to turn these pigments into usable paint! I’ll show you that part later because right now I need more coffee. If you want an alert for part two of this process subscribe to my newsletter below! Bye for now!

xo