It’s been a busy past few weeks for me here at Wild Ozark. Today I’m doing some color experiments with suspended solids and trying to separate out some pigment.

There’s a whole blog post over at the PaleoPaints site to explain exactly what I’m doing here, but suffice it to say that this colored water has been sitting on the counter for two days now without settling. I added alum to it and now it’s beginning to settle out.

Other color experiments

Yesterday I finished up some black paint experiments. Black – a good, deep, smooth, black – has been an elusive target of mine since I first started this whole paint making endeavor. I have high hopes that this experiment finishes out nicely too. There is a post about it at the Paleo Paints site: paleopaints.com/bone-black.

I think I’ve hit the sweet spot with black, but there’s another experiment in the making using willow char, and it’s looking promising so far, too. The willow sticks made nice ‘charcoal pencil sticks’ that could be used just like the charcoal sticks you’d buy at the art supply store. I crushed the ones I made up to make the paint, but I want to make some more to use as charcoal drawing sticks.

Art shows, new gallery options

Over the previous weekend I went to Terra Studios to show my work and try to make a few sales. So the weeks before that were spent getting ready by making more prints, paints, and stationery. Plus I wanted to frame a few more small work originals.

The next things on my list of too-many-things-to-do include getting inventory together to bring over to the War Eagle Mill. Soon you’ll find Paleo Paints and Artwork there, too! Plus I have inventory to update at the Kingston Square Arts, and a decision to make about whether I want to also try and keep up inventory at Terra Studios.

I’m working Thursday this week at KSA instead of my usual Sunday, by the way. In case you want to make a drive out to the country to talk about rocks and paints and such 🙂