Thank you Samuel and all those commenting here. I hope I dont have to do this but am very pleased to know how. (Would try when i get land probably...) It's the clearest instructions I've run into.
Ah, the joys of making your own personal toxic waste site. I know what that's like. I've done the process and my biggest concern here is that you haven't washed your lead white enough to remove all the lead acetate. (The blue stuff.) For the uninitiated, lead paint, or more precisely the blue stuff in lead paint, lead acetate is very sweet. It's why in the past children have been known to eat lead paint chips. That blue water is very sweet. You can smell the sweetness in the air as you wash the lead particles. It's important to wash and rewash the lead until the water the lead sits in is clear of any coloration. For the volume of lead you're producing it would be worthwhile to buy a mechanical grinder. And it helps a ton if you use a strong vinegar. Most store vinegar is like 4% or 8% in water. One can purchase 20% vinegar on line. It hastens the corrosion of the lead sheets. Well worth using. Once the lead acetate is completely removed, and most of the clear water poured off into another container, the wet pigment can be spooned in little nests of coffee filters set on a layer of absorbent towels or cloth or drying rack and allowed to air dry. It's a less messy process than your micro cloth method. Speaking to the uninitiated again, the lead chips, the dry clumps of lead white are very hard. Surprisingly hard. It is a relief to when the lead is finally mulled to a grinding state. But delightful when it's finally rubbed up into a paint with oil. It is a challenging process. Not for the faint of heart. There is a lot of waste. Horse manure. Containers, jars, towels etc. contaminated with lead. Gallons of waste lead water. I think I had like 25 gallons of lead water to get 5 lbs. of lead white. It can be worth the effort if you're a serious painter. I like your paintings so it's clear you are dedicated to craft and want for the best materials possible. Stack lead white is proven to be a superior pigment to work with. I wish you many years of good health and successful painting. Never settle. Keep striving for higher levels of excellence. Both this video and your paintings demonstrate your dedication to put in the work. Here's wishing you the absolute best.
I'm pretty sure the blue stuff isn't lead acetate which is colorless, but some copper salts [copper(II)acetate] that formed from impurities in the lead coils.
4 Clandestine Lead labs raided by the Dept of Obsolete Paint Materials yesterday in Indiana. Police arrested Fred 'Flake' Finn, Craig ' Cremnitz' Crankerson and Linda 'Litharge' Lightfinger and multiple Lead Cartel mules. Police say neighbors had complained about large nos of Rembrandt & Van Gogh RIP offs left leaning against walls in the area. ' Youths sniffing Copal varnish & smoking Belgian linen splits added to our concerns said Karen Philistine, community group leader of " Let's put Art in it's place" said.
Correct, lead acetate dissolves in water and tastes sweet, but the blue stuff are copper salts (impurities in the lead). After grinding, put the water + pigment in a plastic botlle, add more water, shake vigorously, let it settle, pour off the water, and repeat 5 or 6 more times. Cut open the bottle to get the pigment out.
I like to use vinegar to dissolve the lead white with no grinding. Then rinse with water till vinegar smell is gone. Then make put in a enamel pot and use a hot plate on low to dry the cake. Good video, good luck and happy painting.
That is very helpful! I wanted to try making Dutch stack lead white which is when the particles are all different sizes instead of all homogenous like when you dissolve in acetic acid or vinegar. I'll have to try that next time to compare!
Sam, I am absolutely enthralled with the painting of you holding the "first fire" while gazing at the rocket. It gives me pangs of the painting style of the old renaissance masters. I'd love to have that hanging on my wall.
I love it! Thanks for documenting your process! If I were you, I would invest in a much better mask, a true respirator. They’re only $15 for the p100 3m ones.
Dear Sam, along with thanking you for the contribution you generate with your channel, which is very interesting for all of us who are starting out in this wonderful craft that is oil painting, I wanted to ask you, regarding the famous white lead, if it is that it is perhaps possible to use a basic lead carbonate sold by some chemical substance sales companies. I consulted with them if it could be used for such purposes, but they said they didn't know. Therefore, my question is: can said basic lead carbonate be used to make Lead White, or should it only be the pigment resulting from the traditional method of obtaining it? That. Greetings and hugs from Chile!!!!
From what I have researched, lead white you can buy from chemical or industrial companies that is very cheap compared to art companies has a different chemical structure, and is essentially a completely different substance. You just want to make sure the chemical structure is 2PbCO3/ Pb(OH)2 which is what is listed on Natural Pigment's site versus PbCO3 which is what is most commonly listed on non-art sites. I think sometimes the name for the one you want to use for painting is called Lead (II) oxide versus Lead oxide. I am not a chemist and I am not sure what the difference is beyond a high school-level chemistry understanding but that is my understanding. Kremer Pigments sells something for artists called Cremnitz White which claims to be lead white but weighs only 1/4 of what true handmade lead white does. (an instructor at my academy reached out them them and asked why this was and they admitted it was only 70% lead white which still doesn't add up but it does probably have some lead white in whatever additive they use.) It is much cheaper than a lot of the other artists' grade lead whites which makes it more practical for most. I hope that helps :)
One last thing, the horse dod doo... did you just get it in the field or did you treat it a certain way? I got half a 30 gallon bucket, do I fill it half full like you? what process? thank you for responding also..
I've also made some of this with a similar setup. I started havesting the flakes, but they weren't corroded all the way through, so there are very thin flakes of the pure lead mixed with the rest. Do you know how or if it's necessary to remove them?
Yes I know what you mean. I found that I waited longer before harvesting so that the ratio of the flakes to the lead was more. I have also read that a lot of artist would "age" the lead after processing, which is basically just waiting a couple of months, and any residual lead will have enough time to corrode. Having done this, I haven't noticed any negative effects. I hope that helps!
I used acetic acid and diluted it a bit with water. I have heard that vinegar works fine as well. For the acetone, I didn't measure. I just applied some to the rough end of a sponge and scrubbed it a bit and that seemed to work fine.
How do you make sure that none after you will use this exact spot for growing veggies? Future generations will have no clue about your experiments in the grass. There was a case in Switzerland where the cown would have serious problems and they found out that there was lead contamination from about 200 years ago. Just curious to understand your thoughtprocess. I started painting with oil colors as a child. I wish some adult back then would have warned me about their toxic ingredients, but they themselves had no clue or awareness about this. You are a talented artist, please stay safe and healthy, especially when dealing with lead-based paint and other known offenders.
I have a specific container that I put all the water used in the process and then I set it outside to evaporate. The water goes away and the waste is left. The waste that is left is very little so I just keep adding onto it but once I need to dispose of it, my local dump has a specific section for toxic waste/ leaded paints or things like that.
Yes, the commercially available lead is actually not much lead at all. I had an instructor reach out to Kremer pigments who most people get their lead white pigment from, asking for their certification of what was in the pigment and it was only 70% lead and 30% unidentified "other stuff" probably zinc or chalk. It still didn't add up with how much lighter it was so who knows how much it actually it.
@@samuel.s.hoskins ok well, I have run into a problem, I used Apple cider vinegar made from mother, meaning strong and Im gettign a gray flaking.. not sure if its because of the acetate I whiped it with or what but the horse poo is fresh and I ordered some pure strength 99.9% acetic acid and will begin again this weekend.. any suggestions would be nice...
Also...forgive me for asking the obvious, but if the reaction is Pb+CO2=PbCO3 (obviously this isn't the balanced formula), wouldn't combining acetic acid + baking soda produce all the CO2 you need, without necessitating the use of horse manure?
@@angusstuff lol yes make sure to mix the dry powdere with some water to not inhale it also as you add oil and grind the water will seperate from the lead.