The process of obtaining pigment

This week in Suhus Workshop, we learn about pigments and the process of processing the pigment. Pigments are colors obtained from natural sources they are easily obtained from rocks and plants with specific colors. In my case, I would have to get the pigments from rocks that was gathered naturally.

Raw rocks

The smashing mold  and a bucket of sand

The pigment grinder

The roller

Now, in order to get the pigment from the rocks we would have to smash the rocks as small as possible. Once smashed, the pigments are then required to be smashed even smaller using the pigment grinder. The grinder consist of numerous rocks which looks soft but are actually very hard, most of them are small to medium sized but there some large ones. There is also the roller to that the grinder would be placed on. The roller would roll the grinder causing the rocks inside the grinder to smash together and the pigment to smaller bits. This process takes hours and even days, the longer the day the finer the pigment.

Sand is used to clean the grinder

However, after processing the wanted pigment the grinders insides would become the color of the pigment which requires cleaning in order to use it to process another pigment. Sand is used to clean up the interior of the grinder as it would return the grinders interior color to the original while the sand absorbs the pigments color. This process also takes hours depending on the pigments color.

Rocks in a jar

Pigment in a jar

Cabinet left

Cabinet right

Also, It is required to have a cabinet to store the pigment and the sources of the pigment which is the rocks of the pigment. Each of the rocks and pigment is stored in a clear jar so you can see the colors clearly. It is better to label those jars with the locations that the rocks are obtained so it serve as a reference to where the rocks are found as well as gathering more of it. This is just a lecture overview from my lecturer,  we are required to do all the manual work in the next week. So, I am looking forward to experience the process in the following week.