I went down to see what gifts the creek brought when the waters receded from my favorite little spot 💕 She always delivers in spades when she rages 😁

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Why the rocks?

If you haven’t already been following me, you may wonder why on earth I am so excited over these rocks. Maybe in the back of your mind you wonder that anyway, lol.

I’m going to make paint from them!

And so when I say the creek delivered in spades, I am referring to all the varieties of colors in all of the small (and larger) stones that got washed and dropped in the recent rains.

Pigments from Rocks

That’s right. Once I grind these rocks into powders, the various colors are ‘pigments’.

I don’t grind them all together, I’ll grind the same color groups and mix them all together. Some of them I’ll grind individually, if the color of it is unusual. Like that black one in the lower right in the pic below.

What’s the point?

Once I get them ground up in to pigments, I make watercolor paints by adding a solution of gum Arabic to them. And then I paint with them! The paintings below are a few of my latest ones.

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So this little creek of ours delivers in spades in many ways. The gift of rocks leads to pigments which then leads to paintings.

Here’s one of my posts from back when I first started making paints from rocks: https://www.wildozark.com/weight-in-gold/

Want to Try?

I’m going to start selling some DIY Paleo Paint Kits. It’ll include little bags of rocks sorted by color. They’ll be small enough so that you won’t have to work so hard to crush them as you would if they were larger. And enough pigment already crushed to make enough paint to fill a few half pans. So you don’t have to crush the rocks right away if you don’t want to.

Also included will be a few rocks of gum Arabic resin so you can make your solution, and a little honey to add to give it the right humectant properties.

The only thing missing will be the essential oil of cloves, which isn’t going to be a problem for such small quantities.

You’ll need to supply your own palette knife, sifter, and mixing plate. And you’ll need a mortar and pestle to grind up the rocks. If you really decide to get serious with it, you’ll want to invest in a small muller, but if you’re just experimenting to see what you think, you can do without it for now.

Want to be Notified?

When the kits are ready to ship, if you want to get notified, sign up on my list. This isn’t my regular newsletter list. It’s only to let you know the kits are available when they’re ready. Look for them some time in June or July. Cost will be around $25 for each color set.

Soon our creek delivers in spades for you too!

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