Book of Earth

Book of Earth

A Guide to Ochre, Pigment, and Raw Color
Preorder now! via Bookshop.org*, Abrams, Blackwells (for UK + Europe), Boomerang Books (Australia) or anywhere books are sold. Local to the Pacific Northwest? Buy from Third Place Books, Village Books, Elliot Bay Books, Powell’s or request from your library!

Publication date: May 16 2023
Release Events: Seattle, Bay Area + Virtual/world and Los Angeles. Learn more & come celebrate!

From the back

Part rock guide, part art book, and part earth magic, “ochre whisperer” Heidi Gustafson welcomes us inside her rare working collection of more than six hundred ochre pigments (humankind’s oldest art material) from around the planet. As we follow her through orange swamps, red tides, green soil secrets, blue clay exposures, and more, she offers immersive stories, techniques, and how-tos for working with pigments made from land—no matter where you live or what minerals are available to you—and applying these skills to inspire and deepen respect, reciprocity, creativity, and connection with what is at our feet.

In Book of Earth, Heidi’s poetic passion, field experience, and cross-cultural relationships with other ochre stewards around the globe not only challenge how we interact with the inanimate world around us, but also help us appreciate how ochres uses throughout history connect us closer to the earth and to one another today.

View sneak peeks from inside the book ⤸