WILD PIGMENT PROJECT’S RECIPROCAL FORAGING GUIDELINES
Brick fragments on a lakeshore. Photo by Tilke Elkins.
WILD PIGMENT PROJECT’S RECIPROCAL FORAGING GUIDELINES
These guidelines are designed to honor land & communities, wild pigments, and you. They suggest a code of conduct with a range of ways to offer reciprocation to the land for wild pigments gathered. The guidelines also outline practices that protect and safeguard your physical health.
Many cultures with close connections to ancestral lands, which follow practices similar to what’s suggested here, are the source of inspiration for what follows. My thanks, especially, to scientist, decorated professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, Robin Wall Kimmerer, for the teachings in her incredible book, Braiding Sweetgrass, which outlines the concept of the ‘Honorable Harvest,’ and where I first read about tending through reciprocity.
Foraging is a potent and significant way to deepen connection to place and to exchange communication with the interspecies and elemental community. As an artist-forager, I limit my own foraging practice to small-scale gathering, for personal use, of plants that are very abundant and are in the process of dropping or shedding parts of themselves that contain pigment (berries, fallen nuts and leaves, and in some cases, flowers). My work with foraged minerals is on a temporary scale: the mineral pigments I paint with are part of a cycle that will eventually return them to the places where I gathered them.
Pigment-containing materials discarded by humans are a rich source of pigment: rusty metal, scraps from garden waste, kitchen composts, driveway gravel, and even, old forgotten art supplies. Collaboration with these materials — which can often be found in wild places, enmeshed in relationship with other beings — offers a healing source of wild pigments.
~ Tilke Elkins, founder/director Wild Pigment Project.
GUIDING PRINCIPLES
1. The World is alive. All land, water, beings and elementals are alive and capable of communication with human beings.
2. Reciprocal foraging is an exchange of energy between forager and foraged. Gifts flow in both directions. In exchange for the gifts of the land — which are both material and not material — foragers can offer a range of gifts, detailed below.
Gifts Offered to the Land By Reciprocal Foragers
1. RESPECT
Honoring the land by acknowledging the presence, sentience and wisdom here is the keystone of reciprocal foraging.
Acknowledging and responding with action to histories of land theft, enslavement, and genocide on land where you forage is also an important aspect of offering respect to the land.
2. OBSERVATION & CURIOSITY
Cultural Observation
Learning about cultural practices of Traditional Owners/First Peoples/Indigenous Custodians relevant to the foraging place, through conversations and other research. Avoiding foraging for plants, soils and minerals that are essential to Indigenous cultural practice.
Honoring and avoiding foraging on sacred sites and unmarked grave sites by learning about their histories and locations.
Learning about other cultural histories of place: immigrant cultures, and cultures connected to enslaved or indentured people.
Studying Western culture’s perspectives on the foraging place based on ecological and other scientifically-oriented practices and beliefs.
Obtaining relevant information from other entities connected to the foraging place, such as parks, conservation groups, and individuals, and obtaining permits where required to gather plants or minerals.
Personal Observation
Site-specific, sensory observation of the interspecies communities — including human communities — in the foraging place, both over time and in the present moment. Observation and presence over time is the primary way to build dialog with place.
Studying plants and minerals with experienced teachers, in person. Plants and rocks can be toxic and should not be used for pigments without caution and correct practices. Research online and in books can be a good start, but the best way to learn about whether a particular plant or stone is safe and healthy for you to work with, and abundant and healthy enough to be gathered in a particular place is by learning, in person, from someone who has personal experience on the subject.
Personal Integrity
Opening a line of communication with place. Listening, and expressing intent. Refraining from foraging if to do so intuitively feels inappropriate.
Gathering only what’s necessary for a pre-determined project, or educational purpose, as opposed to hoarding or collecting large quantities for the sake of a “collection.” Returning what’s not used for that project to the site where the material was given.
Gathering small quantities of material, and only when there’s a clear abundance. “Carry out only what can be held in two hands,” is one guideline, but sometimes much less is what’s best. Choosing, sometimes, not to bring home what you’ve gathered, but simply to pick it up, enjoy it, and then return it to the spot where you found it.
Caring for and protecting human bodies, including one’s own, by diligently researching foraging sites and taking precautions where contaminants and other toxins are present (wearing gloves and/or masks). See Extended Health & Safety Guidelines below.
Giving Thanks
Giving thanks to the land through open acknowledgement of gifts, in the form of creative output, joyful celebration, prayer, meditation, or small, biodegradable material offerings of personal/cultural significance.
Giving Time
Being with the land in non-foraging contexts, to build intimacy and trust with the multi-species communities.
When not on your own ancestral lands,* and when welcome and invited, spending time forming relationships with the Traditional Owners/First Peoples/Indigenous Custodians on the land where you would like to forage. Donating time to help share information about Indigenous cultures. Volunteering time to indigenous organizations which welcome volunteer support.
If a member of an advantaged population or race, spending time improving access to foraging sites on public land for underinvested or marginalized populations.
Caring for the land by physically practicing land stewardship: working with established land stewards to collect trash, plant seeds, nourish the land. Volunteering time to help run land stewardship organizations.
Gving Money
If thriving financially, giving money regularly to land/cultural organizations, or dedicating a percentage of income to support land and community.
If managing a business, building a generous financial return to the land and its stewards into the financial structure of the business.
Sharing Your Knowledge & Wisdom
Teaching others about reciprocal foraging and the many ways to nurture the land, by freely sharing knowledge and experience through passionate joy and enthusiasm, is one of the best ways to return the gifts of the land to the land. Regular acknowledgement and accrediting of elders, mentors and teachers — including the acknowledgement of these guidelines, if they’re a source of knowledge that you benefit from and share — creates strong community bonds which benefit all.
~Wild Pigment Project’s Reciprocal Foraging Guidelines written by Tilke Elkins, Wild Pigment Project, October 2020. Revised October 2023. Reproduce with permission. Copyright Tilke Elkins.
WILD PIGMENT PROJECT EXTENDED HEALTH & SAFETY GUIDELINES: FORAGING SAFELY FOR WILD PIGMENTS
A common misconception is that mineral & botanical pigments are “non-toxic, because they’re natural.” Plants, stones and earths have properties that can be medicinal, neutral, toxic, or even deadly to humans, depending on context of use, degree of exposure, and cumulative practice. It’s good to have this in mind when you approach a material that’s new to you.
The precise elemental make-up of mineral pigments — earths, clays, and rocks — is quite difficult to identify for a number of reasons. Trained geologists can reasonably identify certain rocks by color, structure, and even smell or taste, but the elements present in earths and clays are much more difficult to assess, especially when they include environmental contaminants. Electron microscopy is the most reliable way to identify minerals. But since most of us don’t have access to an electron microscope, it’s best to assume that we don’t know the specific nature of any given mineral.
Identifying plants and researching their levels of toxicity is easier than identifying minerals, though learning with someone who has experience and deep relationship with plants is much more effective, and safer, than trying to learn alone.
WORKING WITH MINERALS
Holding a rock in your hand is very different from pulverizing that same rock in a mortar and pestle, moving the dust around, and making paint. Picking up rocks with bare hands is generally considered safe as long as you are not in a contaminated area (more on contaminated areas to come).
Crushing rocks is quite different, however, as it produces dust. Fine dust can damage your health in the following ways:
1. Dust of any kind, even dust officially described as “non-toxic” can cause lung damage by blocking the tiny air sacks in your lungs. Consider “baker’s lung,” a form of asthma that affects bakers regularly exposed to flour dust, which of course isn’t toxic. Over time, lung blockage will reduce your capacity to absorb oxygen and can lead to serious conditions, such as asthma or silicosis.
2. Dusts containing heavy metals can cause severe neurological damage, blindness, cancer and other illnesses. These dusts are absorbed through the lungs, but also, significantly, through the skin and eye membranes. See protocol outlined below for protecting from these toxins.
Non-toxic mineral dusts do not cause health damage when absorbed through the skin, and can even impart beneficial properties — thus the benefit of clay face masks, etc. However, since it’s difficult to know whether mineral dusts contain toxins, exercise caution when exposing your skin. If you’re in doubt, wear gloves and shower after exposure to mineral dusts.
Even when the plants or minerals you gather have low toxicity, if they’re found in areas that have been made toxic by environmental contamination, then they will carry that contamination. If you choose to forage in contaminated sites, you must protect yourself accordingly- assume you’re working with toxic materials.
AREAS OF CONTAMINATION
Mines. Mine dumps and tailing pits, while often abundant in pigment-rich ores, can be toxic sites that should be avoided unless accompanied by an experienced geologist. Iron oxides, which are considered non-toxic and are the product of various mining operations, can be contaminated by arsenic. Copper mines produce many dangerous toxins.
Roadsides in heavily-trafficked places. Gasoline fumes contain heavy metals which can settle out and accumulate on soils in road cuts. Use your judgement to assess risk — urban roads may have high levels of heavy metal fallout, while backcountry roads have much less.
Industrial-scale agricultural sites. Drainage ditches and soils can hold high levels of chemical fertilizers and pesticides that could be detrimental to health.
Any other place which has suffered environmental pollution from industry (like superfund sites) or individual household practices (improper storing of household toxins, etc).
Calciferous marine bodies. Sadly, due to ocean contaminants, the shells and bones of many ocean creatures contain dangerous levels of heavy metals like lead and mercury. When crushed, these dusts can be extremely toxic and dangerous, not only when inhaled, but also when absorbed through the skin. DO NOT USE. Egg shells may also be contaminated.
HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF
Avoid Exposure to Silicon Dust:
Silicon is the second most common element in the Earth’s crust, after Oxygen. Silica, or silicon dioxide, is formed from silicon and oxygen atoms, and is the main component of sand (and glass!). It’s also found in many rocks. When pulverized into fine dust and inhaled, silica can, over time, cause silicosis, the most common occupational lung disease in the world. Therefore, it’s best to be careful to avoid lung exposure to fine silica dust. Ceramicists are generally familiar with this danger and take precautions to avoid inhaling dry clay dust.
Don’t crush up hard rocks. A hard rock is likely to be a rock with a lot of silica. Look for soft earths or very crumbly rocks that require little effort to pulverize into pigment. Since silica is colorless, it lightens the color of the minerals it presents with, so hard rocks are likely to make very pale pigments. Think, “glass dust.”
Avoid working with dry material, whenever possible, especially dried clays. Clays have very fine particles, and high levels of silica. Wet clay doesn’t pose the same issue. Similarly, any fine pigment is safer to work with when wet. Instead of dry sifting your pigment, consider using a water-based sifting method, known as “levigation.”
Protect your lungs from exposure. See “lung protection” below.
Wear eye protection: goggles that wrap around the eye on all sides. Fine dusts can enter the body through the delicate membranes of the eyes.
AVOID TOXIC OR CONTAMINATED MINERALS
Unless you have a pristine workspace and excellent dust-hygiene practices (see below), it’s wise to avoid making pigment with toxic minerals altogether. If you work with pigments that have been prepared elsewhere, and contain toxins, your risk is of course lower, but be sure to protect your skin and lungs from exposure nevertheless.
If your exposure to mineral dusts is minimal — i.e., you don’t use a mortar and pestle very much, and you have only occasional exposure to dry pigment — you may make the very personal decision not to reduce your lung and skin exposure to zero whenever you’re around dry pigment.
TAKE CARE WHEN WORKING WITH WASTE STREAM METALS LIKE COPPER & IRON
Copper scraps make a beautiful blue or green pigment, called verdigris, when exposed to acids and salts. The compound is called cupric oxide. The process of transformation from metal to turquoise pigment moves the copper from an inert metal to a toxic coating or dust. This copper-based pigment is a poison that must be handled with care with, because eventually it will end up returning to the ecosystem. Before working with copper as a source of pigment, consider the legacy this pigment will leave behind. Read its toxicity profile, and make sure you know what you will do with all the material you produce.
Iron can also be toxic. If dissolving iron scraps in acid to produce iron oxide, or rust, ventilate well and do not heat. Read this.
LUNG PROTECTION
Wear a well-fitted mask that filters fine dusts, ideally a respirator with changeable filters.
Keep your mask on until your space is clean and you’ve removed and stored your dusty clothes.
SKIN PROTECTION
Cover your skin. This means not only wearing gloves, but also head-to-toe protection, including a head covering, shoes, and eye protection.
Wear “dedicated clothing.” Take off your protective clothing when you’re finished working with the dust, and wash separately from your regular laundry.
Never eat, drink or smoke when working with toxic dust.
Shower immediately if your skin or hair are exposed to dust.
KEEP YOUR WORKSPACE CLEAN
There’s no sense in wearing a mask and covering your skin while crushing rocks into pigment if you take your gloves and mask off as soon as you’ve finished grinding, touch all the dusty surfaces around you, and send billows of dust into the air from your clothing.
When you’re finished working, carefully wipe down all the surfaces in your workspace and remove & store dusty clothes.
TEND THE AIR
Do not use a household air purifier. These will circulate the air and disturb the dust. If possible, work outside. If you think you’ll be doing a lot of work with dry pigments indoors over time, invest in a high-quality studio air filter with a flexible vent that can be focused right over your work spot.
A NOTE ON LEGAL SAFETY
Protect yourself: don’t get arrested for taking rock, clay, earth or sand where it’s not legal to do so. In the United States, it’s illegal to take anything from National Parks. In Europe and other parts of the world, there are many sites that are protected by local bylaws or are designated Sites of Specific Scientific Interest. Many countries also have laws in place to protect sites of cultural heritage. If you’re traveling in areas like these, be aware that your bag may be screened at the airport, and that arrests for transporting material from protected sites are not uncommon.
PERSONAL PRACTICE & SAFETY
At this point, you’re probably thinking, “Do I have to follow this safety protocol whenever I crush a rock or open a vial of dry pigment?!” If your exposure to mineral dusts is minimal — i.e., you don’t use a mortar and pestle very much, and you have only occasional exposure to dry pigment — you may make the very personal decision not to reduce your lung and skin exposure to zero whenever you’re around pigment dust. You may even decide not to wear a mask or gloves. Many of the danger associated with pigment use are the result of prolonged, not brief and occasional exposure. However, there are exceptions to this — pigments that can cause you harm after relatively little exposure. The message here is: do your own research. Don’t put your health in the hands of anyone but yourself.
Feeling overwhelmed? Here’s a brief summary:
Do your own research. Don’t take any one person’s word for what’s safe pigment practice.
Forage in places without a history of environmental contamination. Avoid mines, agricultural areas, and urban roadsides.
If you’re unsure about the environment, wear gloves when picking up rocks or scooping soil.
Crush rocks that crumble easily. Avoid hard, glassy rocks. Avoid working with dry clays.
Cover your skin and hair, and wear a respirator or dust mask when grinding toxic or silica-rich minerals into fine particles, especially if you do so frequently.
Work outside, and/or work near a dust-specific air filter that can target your work spot.
Clean up carefully when you’re done to remove all dust.
Shower after exposure and wash your (dedicated!) work clothes regularly.
Never eat, smoke, or drink while working, and never use your pigment tools in the kitchen!
LEGAL SAFETY
Protect yourself: don’t get arrested for taking rock, clay, earth or sand where it’s not legal to do so. In the United States, it’s illegal to take anything from National Parks. In Europe and other parts of the world, there are many sites that are protected by local bylaws or are designated Sites of Specific Scientific Interest. Many countries also have laws in place to protect sites of cultural heritage. If you’re traveling in areas like these, be aware that your bag may be screened at the airport, and that arrests for transporting material from protected sites are not uncommon.
~ Extended health & Safety Guidelines written by Tilke Elkins in February 2021, revised and updated in October 2023. Much thanks to the many people who have helped inform these guidelines, and especially to Dr. Ruth Siddall, a geologist who uses Earth science to analyze and identify pigments, for her extensive advice and recommendations for these guidelines.
Riverbank pebbles. Photo by Tilke Elkins.