Iron seeds the imagination.
— Nor Hall, Irons in the Fire
The Ochre Archive serves to celebrate and protect ochre, ie. iron-based pigments, humankind’s oldest natural colors. Our counsel of ochres includes hundreds of rocks and dusts, across the geologic and energetic spectrum, gathered and offered by citizens around Earth. Some examples include spiritual and cultural ochres such as kōkōwai from Aotearoa (New Zealand), specularite from the world’s oldest ochre mine in Ngwenya, Eswatini, and meaningful planetary ochres like GOE (Great Oxidation Event ) 2 billion+ years old goethite from Australia or wastewater vivianite from Taiwanese industrial plants.
Unlike museum collections or archives, the ochre archive is a living entity. Currently we are in an exciting new design phase for the architectural infrastructure, called Ferrfora, a sacred space built to hold, display and grow the archive, which will be constructed on south Whidbey Island in Washington, USA, and completed (hopefully!) by 2027-2028.
Want to participate? Donate to the project. Or write us to offer and share your local earth materials.
Want to learn more? Buy our book or read our research publications (see below).
Looking for more in-depth ochre knowledge? Take our online Ochre Practices workshop series.
QUICK FACTS
≳ 900+ natural ochres and earth pigments (and more enroute)
≳ 50+ countries/territories
≳ 7 continents
≳ Dozens of distinct geologic families
MATERIAL FOCUS
⦔ Ochres from common, fragile, sacred and/or urban places, including climate-endangered areas, “banned” countries and controversial regions.
⦔ Pigments and minerals made from iron-laden minerals, such as hematite, goethite, limonite, biogenic iron, magnetite, maghemite, siderite, vivianite, flos ferri, superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles and others.
⦔ Iron-based soils from colonial-industrial extraction and steelworks, Superfund sites, and toxic land.
⦔ Ochres made or used by nonhumans, including microbes, elephants and vultures.
RESEARCH FOCUS
⦕ Communication with ochres, learning their behavior, capacities, being-ness, language, needs and concerns.
⦕ Support/celebrate Indigenous ochre and pigment-making practices, knowledge, renewal, land return and leadership, and ochre-place words spoken in local, native languages.
⦕ Critical study and revisioning of Euro-American iron-ochre land relationships (with an emphasis on the critical Iron Age origins through to today).
⦕ Study of female-led ritual techniques (that utilize iron earths) from ancestral Northern European, Scandinavian and pre-Abrahamic Iron Age mythologies, including in old folk magic, runic and cuneiform ritual formulas, geomancy, funerary and skeletal ceremony and burial objects.
Support OUR WORK
Ferrafora + the Ochre Archive are an independent woman-led and community-supported arts project, sustained through generous exchange, in honor of Earth’s creative power. We’ve relied solely on planetary friends and citizens to support our work and project goals since 2017. Today we are at a new, critical phase of our vocation and mission.
The best way you can support right now is to give a meaningful donation.
If you are a value-aligned patron or steward who wish to fuel our vision or become a key charitable partner, get in touch with us directly to discuss our non-profit fiscal sponsor, grant-matching opportunities, and reciprocal benefits: heidi@earlyfutures.com. ⩄⩃⩀
RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS + COLLABORATIONS
≳ Gustafson, Heidi. Book of Earth: A Guide to Ochre, Pigment and Raw Color. New York: Abrams, 2023.
≳ Velliky, E.C., Hodgskiss, T., Straffon, L.M., Gustafson, H., Gollifer, A., Haaland, M.M. “The Framework for Ochre Experiences (FOES): Towards a Transdisciplinary Perspective on the Earth Material Heritage of Ochre,” in Deep-Time Images in the Age of Globalization: Rock Art in the 21st Century, edited by Abadía, O.M., Conkey, M.W., McDonald, J. (Springer Cham, 2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54638-9_8
≳ Gustafson, H. and Williams, M. “Undersoil: A Dialogue.” Room One Thousand 11: Sediment (2023).
≳ Gustafson, H. “Memory Keeping” in YOLO Journal, 12 (Spring 2023).
≳ Christensen, C. and Gustafson, H. “Voices of Ochre,” in Dark Mountain, 22: Ark (2022).
≳ Gustafson, Heidi. “Dust to Dust: A Geology of Color” in The Side View (2019).
Media coverage of the Ochre Archive can be found in: The Colour of Ink (documentary film), Kinfolk, New York Times, Colossal, American Craft, and elsewhere.
You can also learn more on our resources and workshop pages, or following on instagram @heidilynnheidilynn.
THANK YOU TO OUR Contributors, FRIENDS & Collaborators
Thank you for the generous support to former contributors, and to those who helped and wished to remain anonymous (thus not listed here)! ⤳ Melonie Ancheta of Native Paint Revealed and Pigments Revealed International, Scott Sutton, Kathy Hattori with Botanical Colors, Dr. Elizabeth Velliky with the Centre for Early Sapiens Behaviour, Thomas Little, New Riverside Ochre Co, Hormuz Powders, Promindsa, Micronox Pigments, Colibri Pigments, Jason Logan, Toronto Ink Company, Ricky Priambodo, Leon Korving, Mark van Loosdrecht & Philip Wilfert at Wetsus, Dorieke Schreurs, Morgan Williams, Applied Soils, Alexis Joseph with Case for Making, Devon Deimler with Opus Archives at Pacifica Graduate Institute, Dr. Steven Goodman, Symeon Van Donkelaar, Attila Gazo with Master Pigments, Andrew Zipkin, Phil Sibrell, USGS, Tim Runde, Des Moines WWTP, Book/Shop, Earth Pigments Distributors, Kremer Pigment, George and Tatiana of Natural Pigments, Dr. Claire E. Gustafson, Gregg and Jody Gustafson, NW Rockhounds, Kitt Repass, Sintija Strode, Lydia and Kurt Scherer with Stonehouse Artifacts, Elin Glærum Haugland, Zeide Furtado, Anja Slapničar, Slovenian Ceramics, Catalina Morales Christensen, Stoneworks Mill, Hana Louise Shahnavaz, Amanda Brazier, Crystalynn Tarr, Adam D. Haack, Amy Fujimoto, Madisen Hilligoss, Sarah Hudson, Caroline James, Angela Muller, Stella Maria Baer, Karen Eisenstadt, Patricia Belyea with Okan Arts, Blossom Mertz of Wildland Press, Madison Woods of Wild Ozark, Buck McAdoo, Sky and Ben Peck, Kuros Zahedi, Margaret Griffin, Cyrus Kellick, Sibella Court with The Society Inc., Elissa Callen, Stephanie Cosby, Kat Gosiengfiao with PintaPH, Alyssa Dennis, Helen Correll, Julie Kim, Dr. Tammy Hodgskiss, Tilke Elkins with Wild Pigment Project, Karla Sofía Claudio Betancourt, Thomas Little, Caroline Ross, Elizabeth Ahlem Clark, Sandy Zarszycka, Wolfgang Schweizer, Elaine Su-Hui with Inner Fields NY, Agulis Pigments, Leah Koransky, Kimberly Boustead, Melissa Dickenson, Lizz Aston, Mona Lewis, Alan Salazar, Julia Norton, April Luokkala, Sabine Pinon with In Bed with Mona Lisa, Evelyn Billo + Robert K. Mark with Rupestrian CyberServices, Rebecca Coffin Anderson, Linea Sundstrom, Jodi Gear, Mariana LaFrance with Chemistry and Craft, Corwin Fergus and many many others not included on this list yet.