Making paint from waterfall slate

Slate isn’t the easiest rock to grind up. The first time I made paint, I gathered a few rocks from here and there to see what I would get. This rock lives near the waterfall and because of the various hues of colors I saw in it, became one of my first few sets of paints. I called it “Waterfall Shale”. I think it’s really slate, though.

I don’t really know which one it is. Maybe if the state geologists come back out here to do more looking around, I’ll remember to ask! The previous pieces I used didn’t have the gorgeous red layers in it though. I’m pretty sure this is going to affect the color. The next paint I make with this one will get a variation on the name. I’ll call it “Wild Waterfall Slate”.

Now that I’ve had a little time to learn better technique, I want to try it again. Check back later to see what became of that beautiful slice of rock. Hopefully it transformed into an equally beautiful handmade watercolor paint! (Update: I decided to not grind it, because I couldn’t find anymore with that beautiful pattern, so I saved it as a specimen instead.)

Slate or Shale?

They’re both the same sort of rock, but slate has been under compression longer and is harder. Since the rocks I found are very hard to grind, and they don’t crumble easily (except for the very thin slices) I’m calling them slate.