Color is a Color has fascinated humans for 20,000 years, dating all the way back to the early cave paintings. But not only the cavemen culture gave colors symbolism and meaning. For every region and age, pigments and dyes were produced.
In particular, the Chinese were thought to manufacture and perfect the use of color tens of thousands of years ago. The Chinese were also among the first to practice Color Healing with recorded “diagnoses” in a chronicle that was 2,000 years old, called, “The Nei/ching.”
Egypt is another region known for its use of color. Modern seattle seo is inspired by the technical achievements of the Egyptians. Ancient Egyptians believed that color had magical healing powers. The ancient Egyptians developed yellow, orange, and red paints from pigments found in the soil.
Prior to the 19th century, the term, “paint,” was only applied to the oil-bound kinds; the kinds bound with glue were called “distemper.” By 1,000 BC, paint development came in the form of varnishes and paints from acacia tree gum. New colors were being discovered during this time, and umbers, ochers, and blacks were readily available.
Around 1500 BC in Greece and Crete, painting became known as an art form. It was during this time that the Romans acquired Egyptian color skills. In fact, it was the Romans who gave us purple, which was made using a pound of royal purple dye that required the crushing of four million mollusks. This is the time when the Egyptians created the first new color of the period, “Egyptian Blue.”
“Naples Yellow” was discovered around 500 BC. To make Genuine Indian Yellow, it had to be sent to London for purification after mixing mud with concentrated cow urine. Sepia Brown was made using the dried ink sac of squid, and Sap Green was created with the Blackthorn berry.
The discovery of mixing two colors together and creating a third was made by Plato. The manufacture of color was thus changed.
Even though color was an obviously important and at times, religious aspect in many cultures, none of these groups named very many colors. In the 1960s, two anthropologists conducted an international study of color naming. Often times, many languages would only have two color terms, meaning white light and black dark. 98 languages were studied by the anthropologists, and it was then discovered that the highest number of basic color terms were found in the English language, in which we have eleven: white, black, red, yellow, green, orange, pink, purple, blue, brown, and grey. The other millions of color names are “borrowed;” i.e., grape, peach, gold, avocado, tan, watermelon, etc.
Binder, which is what paint is comprised of, holds the paint together. Appropriate thinners make paint easy to apply. The first synthetic pigment was produced by the Egyptians 5,000 years ago from grinded down blue grass – it was called “Blue Frit.”
Prior to the 16th century, pigment color greatly depending on dyestuffs, which could be grown in or were indigenous to Europe and similar temperate regions. “Natural” dyestuffs were available from 1550 – 1850, but the range of available dyestuffs was extended with tropical dyestuffs from Indian, Central America, etc.
Between 600 BC – AD 400, the Romans and Greeks produced varnishes. Red dye was considered more valuable than gold in another culture across the ocean. The culture was the Aztec civilization, and they practiced Color Healing as well.
“Cochineal red” was discovered by the Aztecs and made using the female cochineal beetle. A million insects were needed to make one pound of water-soluble extract. The Spaniards introduced red to Europe in the 16th century.
Around 2500, “red lead” was discovered by accident. Demand for white lead increased, and while it occurs naturally, the demand brought about manmade reproductions Vitruvius, a Roman writer, architect, and engineer, describes what white lead production was like in the 2nd century AD. By the 17th century, the Dutch exponentially increased white lead availability and lowered the cost by inventing the “Stack Process,” a chemical process that casts metallic lead as thin buckles, stacks them up and leaves them for four to sixteen weeks, which turns the blue-grey lead to white lead all white lead paints have chalk in their undercoats; purer white lead is reserved for finish coats.
The first real synthetic dye, “Mauveine,” was discovered by Henry Perkins in 1856. This brought about the revelation that many dyes could be made synthetically and inexpensively. Linseed oil and pigment-grade zinc oxide or, white paint began being produced from that point on.
Industrialists produced the first washable paint using cast-iron paint mills and zinc-based pigments in the 1870′s; it’s named was “Charlton White.” The first ready-mixed paint was patented by D.R. Averill of Ohio in 1867, but it didn’t pass to catch on.
Sherwin Williams tried for ten years to perfect a formula in which fine paint particles would remain suspended in linseed oil. In 1880, they finally succeeded as far as a formula was developed that greatly exceeded the available paint qualities during that time period. Emulsions based on similar formula were then produced and marketed as “oil bound distempers.” The new paints became available in tins that same year, in a wide array of colors and were exported all over the world.
In this day and age, we have thousands of colors available to us. From the Egyptians to today’s painting contractors, colors have never been more fascinating.
