Making Paint - Experimenting With Found Rock II

Rock from Mt. Piddington, Mount Victoria, NSW Australia

This is my second attempt at making paint from rock That I collected while climbing. This rock was a lot softer than the one from Leura. I was able to grind it fairly evenly to the consistency of sand. Lagridge Refined Linseed Oil was used as the binder. The resultant paint seemed to have mixed wel on the glass plate. However, when applying it to canvas, the paint was clumpy. The pigment appeared to be separating from the oil, a few minutes after it was made. I am looking into the geophysical characteristics between Leura and Mt. Victoria for any insight into why the rocks would have such different characteristics. At this point, I know that both rocks are sandstone and come from the Blue Mountains in Australia only 19.7 km apart from each other.

Materials

Rock - 'Pink Ochre' (from Mt. Piddington, NSW) - 3 Tblsp and 1 tsp

Langridge Refined Linseed Oil - 4 1/4 tsp

Mortar and Pestle

Colander

2 Palette Knives

Small Measuring Spoons

Muller and Glass Plate

37mL empty Paint Tube

Art Spectrum Odorless Solvent - for clean up

Photo Documentation

The fact that this paint could not be smoothly applied to canvas is intriguing. I am waiting for a library book that covers the geophysical characteristics of the Blue Mountains. Hopefully that will shed some light on the difference between rock from Leura and Mt. Victoria. See below for a side by side comparison.

Leura Paint Sample

Mt. Victoria Paint Sample

Leura Paint

Mt. Victoria Paint

Leura Pigment

Mt. Victoria Pigment

Leura Rock

Mt. Victoria Rock

Making Paint Or Trying To - Leaves and Flowers

Attempt #1 - Making paint with leaves and flowers.

The other day, I decided to grind up fallen flowers and leaves. Neither of these attempts went well. The flowers were still alive and wet, while the leaves were dead and crunchy. I will let the mashed flowers dry on paper for a few days. As for the leaves, I may have to take them to a science lab for some grinding with liquid nitrogen... Or maybe I could get a pepper grinder to do some of the work... Feel free to share your ideas with me.

Photo Documentation

Making Paint with Flowers

Making Paint with Dried Leaves

I will have to do some more thinking on how to use leaves and flowers in paint making....

Making Paint III - Red Earth Leura

The other day I made paint from a rock I found while climbing in the Blue Mountains. Since you need ground up pigment in order to make paint, I had to break up the rock in a mortar and pestle before getting started. This took a while and proved difficult to get evenly ground pigment. Lagridge Refined Linseed Oil was used as the binder. The end product was gritty and a bit dry, very similar in feel to the original rock.

Materials

Materials

Rock - 'Red Earth Leura' (from Leura, NSW) - 2 tsp

Langridge Refined Linseed Oil - 1 1/4 tsp

Mortar and Pestle

Colander

2 Palette Knives

Small Measuring Spoons

Muller and Glass Plate

37mL empty Paint Tube

Art Spectrum Odorless Solvent - for clean up

Paper towels

Photo Documentation

The store bought materials were purchased at Parkers Art Supply in Sydney. The rock I used was found in Leura, New South Wales Australia. I found the result to be similar in feel to the Old Holland paint, the bits of rock were even a bit larger than the Old Holland Prussian Blue. It will be interesting to use this color when making a painting about my experience in Leura. The paint is literally the same color as what was there. I wonder though how it will work into my memory of the place while depicting it.
Once again, I have a chart going to catalog how the paint ages after being tubed.

Buying Canvas in Australia

     Today, I purchased my first bit of canvas in Australia. I found a few websites that cater to the buying in bulk crowd. The Sydney Canvas Company and Wholesale Canvas Australia seem to be the most affordable. Not to mention they both have reasonable shipping deals. WCA shipping is free and SCC shipping cost $20.00, but theirs will arrive the same day!
 
      The Sydney Canvas Company was a little less expensive and they had gesso and other artist materials for sale that I needed, so I decided to buy from them. I spoke to the owner over the phone to complete my purchase. I even dared to ask about where these materials are manufactured and how. I think I caught him a bit off guard. None the less, he told me where the canvas is made and primed. He offered to let me come in sometime and have a chat with him about the places he outsources from and anything else that might help my research!
 
      This is what I know so far. I purchased an 8oz roll of 25m x 72" (It seems strange that they use metric and imperial measurements, oh well.) This canvas is made in Maharashtra, India. I ordered unprimed canvas. The owner did mention that any priming is done in Indore, India. He has personally visited both of these places. Hopefully soon I will go in and talk with him about the manufacturing process!

Learning to Weave - What Is a Heddle and How Does It Work?

    In addition to learning how to make my own paint, I want to create my own canvas. In college, I learned to stretch my own canvas, build stretcher bars from 1"x2"s and 1/4" round wood and prime the canvas. However, I am still tied into buying the cotton or linen canvas from the store. Also, I am finding it difficult to learn where the canvas was manufactured. More over, I want to compare the cost of making my own canvas versus buying it. The cost that I am calculating here is not only monetary value, but also ecological costs and human involvement in the process.

    First and foremost, I like to work with my hands in order to gain an understanding of a process. Prior to visiting textile factories, I feel it is necessary to know how to do the things I am investigating. This is why I am learning how to weave and use a loom.

    I have looked at a number of different types of looms, and man, they are visually complicated! Here are some examples:

Frame Loom

http://www.dickblick.com/products/schacht-portable-tapestry-loom/

Rigid Heddle Loom

Source unknown

Floor Looms Varying in Complexity

http://milo-maine.olx.com/leclerc-weaving-loom-iid-12456296

http://www.spinnerschoice.com/Louet%20Looms/default.html

http://verbmall.blogspot.com.au/2010/04/lams.html

http://www.avlusa.com/catalog/looms/a-series-loom/

Having just begun my research. I will not pretend to know anything about the floor looms shown in the last four images. However, I am proud to say that I figured out how a Rigid Heddle works!

This is a Rigid Heddle:

http://sorazora.blogspot.com.au/2011/07/mini-rigid-heddle.html

It is used to separate the yarn (or the warp) connected to the frame making it easier to pass the weft (or the moving yarn) through the working project.

At first, I thought how does it separate every other piece of warp and make it adjustable so that the weft is able to alternate which strand it passes over or under in each row.... Seeing a heddle independent of the loom helped. The individual warp threads are passed through the spaces in the heddle. One strand goes through a slit while the next goes through a fixed hole so on and so forth for every piece of warp in the project. Then, the heddle can be moved up and down forcing every other piece of thread to move relative to it's neighbor thus alternating which strands are on top every row.

Amazing! Unfortunately, I cannot find out when the Rigid Heddle was invented. If anyone has information as to this date, I would be interested to know it. Hopefully soon I will get my own simple loom and begin making canvas to paint on.