Paint Making
www.marysvillepictographproject.com
Making paints from the minerals of the earth is not new to humanity, yet over the past hundred years as a result of technological inovation we have created paints out of synthetic pigments which have for the most part replaced the more historical natural earth pigments. Yet without the natural earth pigments which were the basis for scientific exploration in alchemy and chemistry we would not have been so fortunate to have the vast array of colors that we do today. Making paints from natural minerals found from the Northwest gives the students a chance to understand how the Clackamas Chinook and other cultures across the world have used color to communicate and create with each other and the spirits in which they evoked. By giving the students the chance to make paints with their own hands they learn a skill that has been done for the past 50,000 years, but also changes the way they see the earth in which they live upon. Paint making is one thing that all cutlures have in common regardless of time and place. Below are som images of different minerals that Scott Sutton has come across in Oregon and Washington over the past couple of years.
Dispersing egg tempra with glass muller on a piece of glass. This is the final stage of making paint.
Grinding the minerals with a mortar and pestle.
Mixing pigment with egg tempra emulsion made up of egg yolk, water, and linseed oil
After grinding the minerals, the pigment is sifted through a sieve to acquire the fine pigment.
Tools
Minerals
Mortar and Pestle
Sieve 80 Mesh
Palette Knives
Glass Muller
Glass Sheet
Storage Containers
Paper
Minerals
Mortar and Pestle
Sieve 80 Mesh
Palette Knives
Glass Muller
Glass Sheet
Storage Containers
Paper
Binders
Egg Yolk
Hide Glue
Plant Oils
Plant Resins or Gums
Fish Oil or Eggs
Animal Fat
Beeswax
Blood
Egg Yolk
Hide Glue
Plant Oils
Plant Resins or Gums
Fish Oil or Eggs
Animal Fat
Beeswax
Blood
Traditionally the Native Americans would have used binders that were abundant in the environment in which they lived, but it also depended on the surface in which they were to apply the paints. Dried salmon eggs were chewed up and mixed with pigments especially amongst the people that lived along the rivers. On the eastern side of the Cascades where prickly pear cactus was abundant, the inside of the cactus was mixed with pigment and applied to their clothing, drums, and tipis. Egg yolk was also used as a binder amongst different people here in North America, but also on other continents as well. As you can see, the potential for binders and pigments was quite vast and as Europeans began to come to North America they brought with them a vareity of colors such as Vermillion to trade with the people of this land. Paints were used not just for decorative means, but also for ceremonies, medicine, and identifaction of one tribe from another. A good example of this is the sand paintings of the Navajo in which dry pigment was used to create designs on the floor of lodge during ceremonies that were wiped away after the completion of the cermony itself.
Blue mineral repalacement of hemlock cone at the Oregon Coast.
Green and yellow clay minerals in hill side at Painted Hills.
Greenish blue clay that is falling out of layers of a basalt cliff in Oregon
Yellow iron oxide along the Oregon Coast.
Red iron oxide under a layer of basalt in the Columbia River Gorge.
Red and white clay at Painted Hills National Monument