Grinding Your Own Pigments

Meet Deborah Williams.

One day when Deborah and I were emailing back and forth she nonchalantly mentioned that she grinded her own pigments. My reaction…..wait, you do what? She had my attention, and fascination. Since this is so far out of my realm, I asked her to talk about her process.

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I love the organic nature of beeswax and resin- making my own medium is so simple, and so is grinding pigments.

When I first started working with encaustics, I went and spent two days in Golden Bay, an incredibly beautiful part of New Zealand, and worked with an encaustic artist up there.  I love her work and the organic feel of it. She ground a lot of her own pigments, and since working with her, I have been grinding pigments from rock as well.

There is nothing new about making your own pigments;  people have been doing this for centuries.  The biggest thing, as always, is safety. Lots of pigment is toxic, and you do have to be careful. Crushing coal, chalk, etc is not a good idea unless you wear a ventilating mask. I do have one and I use it for a lot of encaustic work, including work involving store bought pigments.

Also, smashing up rock can be hard on your ears, and I suggest you wear eye protection.

I collect rocks from all over New Zealand. I love rocks and I am in the middle of a huge project in my garden involving lots of digging and a potential stone mosaic!! So I tend to just pick up stones as I see them. Some rocks are not suitable to grind as they are just too hard. I basically collect any bright coloured–rust/brown/green/black/white–stones and just see if they will crush. I use a decent size hammer on a concrete floor (wear ear protection) and it’s trial and error. If a stone crushes, I bring it up onto my board and pound it very softly until it is powdered as finely as I wish.
Again it’s trial and error. Sometimes a clay type stone will stain your medium a beautiful rust red colour. Other times, a green rock will sit in the medium and just look like  greenish grit. Most times a rock will not ‘dissolve’ as your store bought pigments will, and of course contain no fillers or other powders to help it dissolve, and no matter how finely you pound it, it will not be as fine as a processed pigment. Also, you will never get a blue or a red such as what you can buy in a store. However, I promise that  you will easily get a greenish grit!  And when mixed with clear medium looks stunning and gives a great texture, if that is the look you are wanting. It is subtle, it is different, and I love it!

Give it a go! All it takes is a hammer and a rock, and you can get some really different textures and colours happening!

Have you ever ground your own pigments? Would love to hear your experience with it.

Be well….be creative,