Colors have many different meanings across cultures. One of the oldest and most important colors with cultural significance is turquoise. Across pre-Columbian America the colorful stones could be found in almost every society and carried with them important cultural, and colorful meanings. The Navajo tribe, of what is now the western United States, attached an…
For decades orange has been a familiar color associated with caution, and it has come by this cultural association honestly. From the earliest beginnings of human expression until the 1800’s artists and alchemists had to risk everything in order to bring the color orange to the human eye. Orange is one of the earliest pigments…
In 1704 a Prussian chemist named Diesbach had an accident. While attempting to develop a new red pigment Diesbach somehow managed to get animal blood mixed up in his potash supply. History is silent about how exactly this enterprising chemist managed this happy accident but the result turned the world of pigments and color upside…