Working with Natural Pigments

| debbieosborn

I have been working with natural pigments again recently, all the more encouraged by being able to buy an all natural acrylic medium to bind the pigments ready for use.
The pigment below was made by gathering a little of the rubble used in our un-made road to fill the potholes. I was interested in how it crushed easily as the cars ran over it. I must discover what mineral it actually is!

After crushing it in a pestle and mortar and putting through a very fine sieve I was able to combine it with the medium and produce a very usable colour.

Here are two pieces of work I’ve made using found and ground natural pigments.
Ochres and oxides, lichen and the pigment above.

Working in our New Home

| debbieosborn

I am now in my new house awaiting a new studio by way of converting the garage. It’s going to seem a long wait! The downstairs is sorted so I now have the ability to do some work in the dining area of the kitchen which is fab.

I recently enjoyed a visit to the Hepworth in Wakefield (UK) I have always loved pots and there was a great exhibition there. I took some photos for reference and this is a collage I have done using my photos for inspiration. I feel good about producing some work again!

Mail Art

| debbieosborn

Here are some Mailart postcards and ATC’s I’ve recently done. I had a sheet of A3 paper that had been used for using up leftover wet paint, which had completely dried. I had the idea of making some ATCs with it. I added some stitch and made eight and used the rest to create some postcards.

I was actually really pleased with the way they’ve turned out so will be the next lot of mail art sent out to my pals 🙂

processing Natural pigments

| debbieosborn

I have processed some of the pigments I’ve collected (see previous blog post) to make wax crayons.

First by grinding them down in a pestle and mortar.

Then sifting a couple of times to get as finer powder as possible. The grinding and sifting is an amazingly mindful process.

This powder/pigment can be used in its rawest form straight away, by just mixing with a little water. Someone had already use the raw pigment by the cliffs where I was collecting, because some of the rocks were saturated by the tide and the pigment was still wet. There is a further process to make the pigment dust finer which I may well refer to in a later post.

I used 50/50 of recycled waste candle wax with eco soya wax and mixed with some pigment to begin making my wax crayons and poured it into my silicone mould.

I was pleasantly surprised when I was able to make decent marks with them!

These are the crayons I’ve made so far with pigments as they were found. It is really very satisfying.

I must advise anybody who might be inspired, please collect rock/pigment that has fallen already, don’t collect direct from the cliffs.

Pigment Hunting

| debbieosborn

I get inspired by so many things and the more materials I have in my studio the more excited I get about making art. I am also eager to be as environmentally aware as I can in my art practice. So when I saw someone making crayons/pastels with natural pigments I wanted to try to do it myself.

We have some very beautiful cliffs a short drive from us, so I went out on a mission yesterday to see if I could find some earth pigments. These are the beautiful Hunstanton cliffs, in Norfolk, England.

The tide had just turned and this crevice was still moist from the sea.

This red was particularly smooth and gorgeous.

These are the different shades of pigment I found which when dry, need to be ground to a smooth powder. I’m quite excited! 🙂