this post was submitted on 09 Mar 2026
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Cool Rocks

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I don't know what kind, specifically. Ochre covers a wide range of natural earth pigments with different compositions, but usually iron-rich.

I dig this stuff out of cracks in the Canadian Shield for paint pigments. It's naturally colourfast and very close to, if not a little less pure than what's used in commercial paint.

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[โ€“] Suck_on_my_Presence@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Oh wow, digging it out of the Canadian shield? I really want some geologist thoughts on that. The Canadian shield is one of the oldest hunks of rock on earth and it contains some banded iron formations - which are kinda records that help us understand what earth was like in the earliest stages. Very cool!

[โ€“] Wren@lemmy.today 6 points 2 months ago

I'm no geologist but I live on the shield, and it's extremely fascinating. It's so tough that many house foundations are built around it rather than break through it, so I literally have some Precambrian rock sticking into my basement. I use it as a shelf.

The main site where I dig out ochre, which I'm assuming is an iron band, is just a few minutes walk from where I live.