I visited Hemlock Stone in Stapleford, which is a natural pillar of red sandstone. There are different theories as to why the pillar exists, including natural erosion and quarrying of the surrounding areas. In the middle ages, it was believed that the Devil threw a stone there from Castleton in Derbyshire because the ringing of the church bells annoyed him. Whatever the reason, it is clear the pillar is still rapidly eroding due to wind erosion, and red dust can be found on the ground surrounding the stone.
Due to my interest in using natural materials, I collected some of this dust to see whether I would be able to use it to create a pigment. I researched the process in a book called Found and Ground by Caroline Ross.
In the studio, I ground the stone dust into a fine powder using a pestle and mortar. I then mixed this powder with water in a process called 'levigation', where I let the grit and heavy particles settle to the bottom before pouring the upper water containing the finer particles into another container, which I then left for several days in a sunny spot of the studio. What was left after evaporation was my red pigment.
First I tried mixing the pigment with oils, and it did produce a beautiful ochre red colour (seen in the images above), however once the oil dried, the pigment was prone to crumble off of the page like sand. Mixing it with water seemed to be a little more successful, and I loved the way the pigment tended to resist the water, pooling together and making little water channels (below image). The drawback was that the pigment turned the charcoal in my drawing grey, which was unfortunate, because in my working process, I like to use the ink over charcoal as a way of setting the charcoal as I work.
Still, I was excited to try the pigment, and I will experiment further in future, perhaps mixing it into a wax mixture in the manner of Anselm Kiefer.
