Improved Slurry Technique to Try

My wife is into knitting, spinning, and all things fabric.
Guess who I'm going to enlist to help me make a canvas from scratch? :)

She was talking with Michael Cook online recently about my project, and he suggested another technique for refining earth pigments. Michael has a very cool project of his own going on. Check out www.wormspit.com

Anyway, here's the full text of his technique. I'm hoping to try this out in a couple of weeks:

I asked Alyssa if you were levigating the pigments - and I figured I'd
reply to you instead of making her play messenger!

What I was doing, was grinding the rocks (mostly yellow and red
ochres, but also malachite and some whitish chalks) to a fine powder -
starting with a hammer and a pillow case, and ending up with a
dedicated coffee grinder. I would put that into a jar with water, and
swirl it vigorously to mix. The liquor of color would be on top, and
the grit would quickly settle out. I poured the liquor of color off
into a shallow bowl, and let it dry, which made a fine, usually
grit-free powder. If the powder still felt gritty after levigating it
once, I repeated, and then mulled the resulting powder with water
using a glass muller and a glass plate, then let it dry for storage or
mix directly with binder. I did a little paint-sketching with them,
although it was all just samples and I didn't keep a completed
project.

Couple of things to think about for this project:

This technique might be a lot faster than me letting the particles settle down, then have the entire jar of mud dry. And, it should give me a more consistent and finer particle.

How do I make a glass muller (or any muller for that matter) from scratch? Maybe a clay/ceramic fired one with a good glaze? Or maybe an especially smooth & flat skipping stone?



If I implement both this technique & the use of a muller, I'm hoping to get a nearly commercial grade of pigment. I'll post the results as I try this out!

Cheers, and keep the suggestions coming!

Egil's Update

This photo was taken by our 3 year old. Thanks for not dropping the camera!



Here's the spread of material I brought to share



Here's a shot of the Sunday class.

As I briefly mentioned, last weekend we were in Eugene at Egil’s, a SCA event. I had a great time sharing what I’ve learned so far with other attendees. I’ve already gotten an email from someone who has attended my class with some suggestions on things to try. Thanks!

Here’s some of the notes that people gave me to further my studies:

Books to read (they just happen to be *ahem* on my Amazon wishlist now)
The Craftsman Handbook by Cennio Cenni – translated by Daniel Thompson.
Also by Daniel Thompson: The Materials and Techniques of Medieval Painting.

Places to visit:
Glass Buttes in Central Oregon near Riley.
Apparently there is a lot of obsidian there of which I could make some good tools.

Niaux Cave in the Pyrenees

A note to visit the Newgrange Megalithic Passage Tomb in Ireland.

Egil's Part I

Just a quick note, with more details to follow. My wife and I spent our Memorial Day weekend at Egil's 34, a SCA event (from their webpage: The SCA is an international organization dedicated to researching and re-creating the arts and skills of pre-17th-century Europe).

I had the opportunity to 'teach' two classes on making pigment from scratch. It was really more of a chance to share what we all have learned about how our ancestors made pigment. I certainly learned a lot from everyone, and a good time was had by all! Photos and resource links will be posted shortly (tons of books and ideas were passed around). Thanks again to everyone who attended!

Two Pigment Tests in one day!

I felt especially productive this weekend, and Ravenna wanted to hang out with me in the garage, so I tried two new pigment tests. Both additions have made it into the header. Hey, anyone out there know how to make this header an image map using Google's Blogger? I'd really love to have each color link to their respective entries!

Pristine




First up is what I *think* is called ‘Pristine’. I got it from John Garsow when I bought a bunch of Lapis Lazuli from him. We were hoping it would make an OK white. I think it is some sort of magnesium oxide, but I couldn’t find anything on the web about it recently. I’ll send an update if I do. In the meantime, please comment if you recognize this rock/stone/mineral/thing.









The rock looks fairly white, with possibly a little rust or dirt on the outside. The powder looks great. However, when I mixed it with walnut oil, I got a light and somewhat grey. I’m thinking the grey came from one of four possible sources.

1. The impurities in the rock


2. The impurities from my mixing board


3. A chemical reaction with the walnut oil (I can test this by trying this pigment out with a different medium)


4. Some sort of reaction with my palette knife metal (I can try something else to
   mix the pigment & the medium together)

It’s not very opaque, so I think I’m going to keep looking for a better white (maybe go back to eggshells? I don’t know)


Jasper



Second up is some Jasper that I got on Saturday. I picked it up, along with a bunch of other gemstones from Scratchpatch. This is a place in Seattle that encourages you to come by, and sit in and examine a bunch of gemstones. You can then pick out the ones you like, and pay for them by the bag full. Ravenna and I went there, and we both got a medium bag of assorted rocks, for $8 a piece. It was really fun to take our shoes off and sit on a bunch of pretty tumbled rocks! I liked how they felt on my feet and legs. So next time you’re in Seattle, stop by there and try it out. Science, Art & More is about a block away, so make a day of it!










Jasper is mostly silica and impurities (in this case iron(III) ). It crushed fairly easily with pliers & a sledge hammer, and will probably crush well with a big rock, once I decide to make a production run (not using any modern tools)












I was a little worried that it wouldn’t mix with walnut oil very well, because of how it handled at first. It seemed to repel the oil. But once I started mixing it, it seemed to hold the oil fairly well. Sidenote: It’s amazing how each paint handles so completely differently from each other. I know my pigment particle sizes are really big compared to consumer paints, but it still never ceases to amaze me how different they behave and feel. This pigment is the reddest material that I’ve found so far, although my parent’s burnt soil comes close (not as pure of a red).

Deep Blue

We're pretty much settled in, but the problem with any move is that your patterns and habits are disturbed. New patterns emerge and old ones wither away. Case in point; this project. It's taken me until tonight to simply grind some of the lapis lazuli that I bought back in March. But the results are very promising!



I took the tiny grains from the John Garsow purchase and put them into the mortar. Obviously, some of the stuff in there isn't lapis. I took out as many purities as I could before grinding. After making a somewhat coarse grind, I mixed it with walnut oil. It was too coarse to use with a brush, but it might work OK with a palette knife. (see left most sample)





So, I put the remainder of the pigment back in and ground it some more (maybe 3 more minutes) Sure enough, it works fine with a brush. (second to left). It is also a little duller. Art Graham told me cobalt can become grayer when the crystals are crushed too fine. I think a similar thing might be happening here with the lapis. The good news is I can choose the best grind for my painting application instead of relying on a paint maker to do that for me. The bad news is I doubt I'll ever have identical batches!

At any rate, the color is much more vibrant, deeper and darker than the Chilean lapis lazuli that I bought in Canada (right two samples)!

Birthday Blues

More Blue Goodness

Today’s my official birthday! Last weekend, I had a party (see here for blue cake: )

Last Friday, I had even more blue goodness. I was able to take some comp time from work and go to a gem show. http://www.intergem.net/

I bought Lapis Lazuli from three vendors there. Now then, how should I handle money with this project? Most if not all Lapis comes from either Afghanistan or Chile. I doubt I’ll be going to either place in four years. Anyway, the prices are listed with each entry. As always, click on an image for an enlarged view



Here’s a the remaining samples I bought in Canada. It is from Chile. I wetted them so you can more accurately see their color.














Here’s the polished stones I bought from Gems Stones of Africa. They were $5, and as you can see, had a lot of calcite and other non-lapis in them. Still, they’re pretty. I think they also had better grades, but they were more money of course, and since I didn’t need polished rocks, I kept searching. http://www.gems-stones.com















Here’s the start of some either really large buttons, or very garish earrings. I bought these from C&C International for $6 a piece.














Finally, here’s a small number of the pound or so of rocks that I bought from John E Garsow for $70. He & his wife were the most helpful at the show. He had three grades to choose from. I was going to get the highest grade, but when I told him it was to crushed into paint, he told me that I could get some really nice but small stones in the 2nd & 3rd grade bins for much less. I spent about 20 minutes sorting out the best ones, and he threw in a couple more after weighing them (to offset the water & because I bought so many I’d guess). He even gave up his chair so I could spend the time needed sorting without hurting my back. I asked him if he had any other ideas for paint, and he though ‘pristine’ or some type of Magnesium oxide might make a good white. I bought $5 from him, and will post it if the results are good.


Next step, crush & add oil or egg yolk (for tempera paint)!

Looking forward to your opinions on how to deal with money for an art from scratch project. Offset it by doing community service @ minimum wage equivalents? Other ideas?

Daughter More Prolific than I

It's midnight. The weekend was great, and it feels like spring is in the air again! We're done moving. I unpacked a lot of stuff in the garage and cleared a space for the art project to recommence. But so far, all I've really done is update the banner on my blog, which took waaaay too long, and I'm still not sure if I like the change(I lost my original file, and had to rebuild it *from scratch*, if you'll pardon the term.)

My Photoshop skills are really rusty. But my daughter's is growing! She's 2 3/4 and can pick out her own colors & draw with my Wacom tablet. It's amazing how good her stuff looks for her basically just scribbling. So in lieu of my work, here are two samples of hers.




Personal to Theo: I have your Titanium still, and promise I'll send it out soon, even if it's much more boring than the samples you already have (maybe I need to alter it first. Hmmm....)