a Box of Rocks

Someone ordered a box of rocks from my website last night (yes, lol, that’s a REAL product at my shop!).

And this morning I stopped to gather them while I was out taking my run/walk.

An idea…

I decided to make a video of that to send it to the customer, not something I had thought of doing before.

Another idea!

And then decided that this video would be a great value-added thing to do for every order for the box of rocks!

A third iteration of the same idea

Then I also decided that each of these videos would make good promotional content for the product itself on YouTube.

So a win-win-win this morning in my mind!

Here’s the video if you’d like to see what I’m talking about:

How do I use them?

The end goal is to use them in my paintings. Before I get to that point, though, first I break the rocks into smaller pieces. Then I grind those into dust. Depending on whether I need a little or a lot, I will use the mortar & pestle or the crusher machine.

Once it’s a dust, I ‘wash’ it and recover the fine particles that stay suspended. Once the fine part settles, then I pour off the water and dry the sediment.

When the sediment is dry, it’s ready to be the pigment for my paint. I can use it to make watercolor or oil paints, so where it goes from here depends on what kind of paint I’m making.

Since I rarely paint in watercolor anymore, I will almost always turn it into an oil paint.

A box of rocks

If you landed here out of curiosity about this box of rocks, and now have decided you’d like one too…

Here’s where you can order some (US addresses only):

https://shop.wildozark.com/product/box-of-rocks/