12th January 2023

Making my own pigments!

I found the time to make two pigment powders.  The sources were compost from my muck heap and rust from the chassis of a 1968 Triumph Spitfire, one of my husbands restoration projects.  Sources with personal meaning.

Another steep learning curve. The rust was definitely easier to grind down into a nice fine powder.  However, I found it hard to get a colour out of it just by adding a binder and medium.  I need to do more experimenting with it, use different process to leach the colour.  It had a great gritty texture which I will remember for future projects.

The compost was harder to break down and I should have spent more time with pestle and mortar. I only used it when I made egg tempra. It was a lovely texture and quite easy to paint with, however a finer paste would most definitely have been a better consistency.

My conclusion is that I possibly need some form of alchemist qualification.

I definitely need to improve my techniques and understand a bit more about extracting to colour from unusual sources.