[Yellow and Green Pigments]


Table of Contents

[Yellow and Green Pigments]
2015.November.23, 1:00pm
2015.November.24, 2:30pm
2015.November.30, 9:23am
2015.November.30, 10:44am
2015.November.30, 1:16pm
2015.December.14, 11:08am
[Principal Recipe 2: Green]
Name: CK+YY, Jenny Boulboulle, Donna
Date and Time:

2015.November.23, 1:00pm

Location: Chandler 260
Subject: Scudegrun 2 (Weld)



Name: Cindy, Yuan Yi, Jenny Boulboulle
Date and Time:

2015.November.24, 2:30pm

Location:Chandler 260
Subject: Yellow Ochre
Observations


Name: (Also the name of your working partner)
Date and Time:

2015.November.30, 9:23am

Location: Chandler 260
Subject: Safety Notes

Jenny and I had a safety meet with Kathy Heinemann from Health and Safety (see lead and verdigris safety in procedures). We talked about safe disposal of white lead, yellow lead, and verdigris. All materials should be cleaned in linseed oil and paper towels. The paper towels can be disposed of as solid hazardous waste in a labeled container (label with full scientific or chemical name). We need to have a separate liquid waste container for the filtrate water from white lead pigment. It is OK to leave the drying substrate from the weld/white lead pigment covered in a closed fume hood. Verdigris and lead paper towels can be put in the same solid waster container.


Name: (Also the name of your working partner)
Date and Time:

2015.November.30, 10:44am

Location: Chandler 260
Subject: Weld Pigments on Chalk and Eggshell




Name: (Also the name of your working partner)
Date and Time:

2015.November.30, 1:16pm

Location: Chandler 260
Subject: Weld Pigments on Ceruse, Minium, Massicot, Verdigris



Name: (Also the name of your working partner)
Date and Time:

2015.December.14, 11:08am

Location: Chandler 260
Subject: Observations
2015_001fall_labsem_KokYi_yellowpigment_20151214_74.jpg


Notes, Entered 11/16

[Principal Recipe 2: Green]

[Annotation Plans]
This recipe is relevant because it pays attention to how colors (primarily green and yellow, as in the damask recipe) are mixed, albeit in a different medium (oil paint) than our principle recipe. It gives detailed instructions on how to make different hues of green, some of which are mixed with yellows which may also be used in making dyes. The recipe is specifically for painting on metal casts, to give the cast plant--for example, marigold flowers, as the author specifies--a more lifelike color.


Merrifield discusses how dyes and pigments can have the same basis or be derived from the same plant through different processing methods.
Merrifield, pg. 7
It is certain that these passages relate to the preparation of transparent colours for painting; but I think that they refer also to the art of dyeing, and to the decoration of wearing apparel. No. 92 is evidently a mordant, and was used both to prepare the cloth to receive the colours, and to bleach certain parts of coloured cloths, by which a regular pattern might be given to them...


Questions
why was white lead used as this if it was so familiar as a colorant?
how is white lead chemical structure similar to chalk? both not very reactive
taxonomy of materials for the author practioner--how he understands white lead and chalk as in the same family



Materials:
oil (unspecified in recipe): linseed? walnut?
vert-de-gris (in lab)
massicot (yellow lead) (need to order from Kremer)
yellow ochre (in lab)
broom flower
weld
ceruse (order from Kremer)
chalk (in lab)
eggshell (buy from grocery store?)
rabbit skin glue



Materials
glass muller and glass board
1000 ml beakers
filters
thermometers
pipette
glass board and grinder
paint brushes


test board


Safety


Trials
Yellow Ochre
From Cennini: Ocher color is of two sorts, light and dark. Each color calls for the same method of working up with clear water; and work it up thoroughly, for it goes on getting better...And this color is coarse by nature.
  1. Mix together approx. 1 g yellow ochre and 2 ml water (vary ochre and water amounts for saturation, until it grinds smoothly) with glass muller on glass board until smooth (try both French ochre Sahara and Burgundy Yellow Ochre)
  2. paint on board (about 4 layers?--until color is opaque)
  3. grind approx 1 g yellow ochre with 2 ml linseed oil
  4. paint on board
  5. grind approx 1 g verdigris in 2 ml linseed oil
    1. SAFETY When working with verdigris, wear nitrile gloves; clean all materials used with verdigris with linseed oil; wash brushes in linseed oil until clean, then rinse all materials with water and soap; linseed oil for cleaning should be absorbed with paper towels and put in solid hazardous waste
  6. combine verdigris with yellow ochre (can vary amount of each pigment)
  7. paint verdigris and yellow ochre mixed pigment on board
Massicot
From Cennini: (On a color called giallorino, noted as massicot) This color is to be ground, like the others aforesaid, with clear water. It does not want to be worked up very much, and, since it is very troublesome to reduce it to powder, you will do well to pound it in a bronze mortar, as you have to do with the hematite, before you work it up. And when you have made use of it, it is a very handsome yellow color; for with this color, with other mixtues, as I will show you, attractive foliage and grass colors are made. And as I understand it, this color is actually a mineral, originating in the neighborhood of great volcanoes; so I tell you that it is a color produced artificially, though not by alchemy.

Merrifield, Paduan Manuscript: 121. Straw colour--Take lead yellow (massicot), wash it with a very strong and clean ley, then decant the ley, and distemper with the colour with parchment glue.

  1. Mix together approx 1 g massicot and 2 ml linseed oil with glass muller on glass board until smooth
    1. SAFETY For handing yellow lead, first set all materials in fume hood, wear nitrile gloves, protective glasses, and face mask; place wet paper towels under work area and on scale used for measuring yellow lead; measure yellow lead in a small plastic container with plastic spoon, leave fume hood as closed as possible; afterwards, clean beaker with wet paper towels and oil; tools can be cleaned with soap after cleaning with oil by person who did not work with lead; all paper towels and disposable containers must be put in hazardous waste container
  2. paint on board (until color is opaque)
  3. grind approx. 1 g verdigris in 2 ml linseed oil
    1. SAFETY When working with verdigris, wear nitrile gloves; clean all materials used with verdigris with linseed oil; wash brushes in linseed oil until clean, then rinse all materials with water and soap; linseed oil for cleaning should be absorbed with paper towels and put in solid hazardous waste
  4. combine verdigris with massicot (can test varying degrees of yellow)
  5. paint verdigris and massicot mixed pigment on board
Scudegrun 1 (Broom flower)*
<id>p063v_3</id>
<head><m>Scudegrun</m></head>
<ab>It is made with the broom flower (genista tinctoria) well boiled in water, putting in it enough alum, then some ceruse.</ab>
</div>

<id>p063v_3</id>
<head><m>Scudegrun</m></head>
<ab>Se faict avecq de la <m>fleur de genest<m> fort bouillié<lb/>
dans de l’<m>eau</m>, y mettant suffisament de l’<m>alum</m>, puys<lb/>

Merrifield, Paduan Manuscript can be adapted:
133. To make giallo santo.*--Take the berries of the buckthorn towards the end of the month of August, boil them with pure water. until the water is loaded and thick with colour; add a little burnt roche alum and then strain it. You may boil the strained liquor to make the colour deeper, mixing with it some very pure gilder's gesso; then make the colour into pellets, and dry them in the shade. *In the Nuovo Plico, Giallo Santo is said to be made of the flowers of the Erba Lizza, Barbi de Becco (yellow goat's beard). We may, therefore, safely infer that it was a yellow lake made sometimes with the juice of one plant, and sometimes with that of another.


de la <m>ceruse</m>.</ab>
  1. Make broom flower pigment: 20 g broom flower cut fine boiled in 300 ml water in glass beaker until it is reduced to half, add 3.33 g powdered white lead (alternately chalk or powdered eggshell) and 0.83 g ground alum stirring continuously as it boils (Measurements from historical weights and measurements in our resources). Filter and wash with water until filtrate is colorless. Allow precipitate to dry on paper filters at room temperature. Collect in glass vials after dried. Dispose filter with white lead in solid waste.
    1. trial 1: precipitate broom flower solution onto 3.33 g powdered chalk
    2. trial 2: precipitate broom flower solution onto 3.33 g powdered eggshell (first grind eggshell with mortar and pestle)
    3. trials 3: precipitate broom flower solution onto 3.33 g ceruse: for handing lead white, do entire experiment in fume hood; wear nitrile gloves, protective glasses, and face mask; place wet paper towels under work area and on scale used for measuring lead white; measure lead white in a small plastic container with plastic spoon; when pouring lead white into boiling mixture, leave fume hood as closed as possible; afterwards, clean beaker with wet paper towels and oil; tools can be cleaned with soap after cleaning with oil by person who did not work with lead; all paper towels and disposable containers must be put in hazardous waste container
  2. Mix together 1 g broom flower scudegrun pigment and 2 ml oil with glass muller on glass board
  3. paint on board
  4. grind approx. 1 g verdigris in 2 ml linseed oil
    1. SAFETY When working with verdigris, wear nitrile gloves; clean all materials used with verdigris with linseed oil; wash brushes in linseed oil until clean, then rinse all materials with water and soap; linseed oil for cleaning should be absorbed with paper towels and put in solid hazardous waste
  5. combine with verdigris with broom flower scudegrun (varying degrees)
  6. paint on board
In a note in 2015 Cennini (pg. 209): In other recipes, sources of calcium carbonate or calcium sulphate are often used as substrates in making pink sappanwood lakes, with lead white being used sometimes for bulk and colour. Alcherius, the Bolognese Manuscript and the Venetian Manuscript have recipes which omit quicklime but include variously powered eggshells, marble dust, chalk, leadwhite and gypsum (Merrifield 1849: 1: 52-4, 94, 270, 282-4, 292; 2: 438-9; Tosatti 1991: 190-1).
Scudegrun 2 (Weld)*
<id>p010r_2</id>
<head><m>Stil de grain yellow</m></head>
<ab>It is made in <pl>Lyon</pl> from the <m>sap of weld</m>mixed with <m>chalk</m> or better yet with <m>ceruse</m>, which is appropriate for <m>tempera</m> and <m>oil</m>. </ab>
</div>

<id>p010r_2</id>
<head><m>Scudegrun</m></head>
<ab>Il se faict à <pl>Lyon</pl> avecq du <m>suc de gaulde</m> & de la <m>croye</m> incorporée<lb/>
ensemble, ou pour mieulx avecq de la <m>ceruse</m> qui est propre à<lb/>
destrempé et à <m>huile</m>.</ab>

Merrifield, Brussels manuscript (1635) can be adapted: 194. To make good and fine arzica Take 1 lb of weld, which the dyers use, cut it very fine, then put it into a glazed or tinned base, and add it to enough water to cover the herb. Make it boil until the water is half wasted, and if there is not enough water add a sufficient quantity and no more; then take 2 oz. travertine (q.v.) finely ground, or 2 oz. white lead, and half oz. of roche alum ground very fine, then put all these things together a little at a time to boil in the vase directly, before the water cools, and stir the water continually, removed the vessel from the fire, and when nearly dry, pour off the water. Then take a new brick hollow in the middle, layer the arzica on it, and let it settle perfectly; then put it on a small and well polished board to dry, and it is done.

From Libro Secondo de Diversi Colori e Sise da Mettere a Oro: A Fifteenth-Century Technical Treatise on Manuscript Illumination, Arie Wallert, The Getty Conservation Institute in Historical Painting Techniques, Materials, and Studio Practices, University of Leiden, 26-29 June 1995

(pg. 41) [21] To make the yellow “arzicha.” Take very well ground eggshells and put them in the hollow of a new brick. Take the weld herb of the textile dyers and let it boil in water with a little bit of alum. Pour it on the eggshells and thus make it as light or as dark and you wish (24).
  1. Make weld (reseda luteola) pigment: 20 g weld in permeable filter cut fine boiled in 300 ml water in glass beaker until it is reduced to half, add 0.83 g powdered potash alum (refer to Kirby, Techniques of Dyeing, 2014 for potash alum as mordant) and 3.33 g powdered white lead (alternately chalk or powdered eggshell) stirring continuously as it boils (Measurements from historical weights and measurements in our resources). Filter and wash with water until filtrate is colorless. Allow precipitate to dry on paper filters at room temperature. Collect in glass vials after dried. Dispose filter paper with lead in solid waste. Clean everything touch lead with a wet paper towel, then oil and water and dispose paper towels as solid waste. Put lab coat in plastic bag separate from other lab coats. (Measurements from historical weights and measurements in our resources)
    1. trial 1: precipitate weld solution onto 3.33g powdered chalk
    2. trial 2: precipitate weld solution onto 3.33g powdered eggshell (first grind eggshell with mortar and pestle until very fine like chalk)
    3. trial 3: precipitate weld solution onto ceruse: for handing lead white, do entire experiment in fume hood; wear nitrile gloves, protective glasses, and face mask; place wet paper towels under work area and on scale used for measuring lead white; measure lead white in a small plastic container with plastic spoon; when pouring lead white into boiling mixture, leave fume hood as closed as possible; afterwards, clean beaker with wet paper towels and oil; tools can be cleaned with soap after cleaning with oil by person who did not work with lead; all paper towels and disposable containers must be put in hazardous waste container
  2. Mix together approx. 1 g weld scudegrun pigment and approx. 2 ml oil with glass muller on glass board
  3. paint on board
  4. grind approx 1.5 g verdigris in 2 ml linseed oil
    1. SAFETY When working with verdigris, wear nitrile gloves; clean all materials used with verdigris with linseed oil; wash brushes in linseed oil until clean, then rinse all materials with water and soap; linseed oil for cleaning should be absorbed with paper towels and put in solid hazardous waste
  5. combine with verdigris with weld scudegrun (varying degrees)
  6. paint on board
*Several sources (see below) note that colors termed "scudegrun" or "giallo santo" are often made of indeterminate plant bases. The recipes listed here all related a similar process for deriving lake pigment in a way similar to our red lakes reconstruction.
Minium
  1. Mix together approx 1 g minium and 2 ml linseed oil with glass muller on glass board until smooth
    1. SAFETY For handing red lead, first set all materials in fume hood, wear nitrile gloves, protective glasses, and face mask; place wet paper towels under work area and on scale used for measuring yellow lead; measure yellow lead in a small plastic container with plastic spoon, leave fume hood as closed as possible; afterwards, clean beaker with wet paper towels and oil; tools can be cleaned with soap after cleaning with oil by person who did not work with lead; all paper towels and disposable containers must be put in hazardous waste container
  2. paint on board (until color is opaque)
  3. grind approx. 1 g massicot in 2 ml linseed oil
    1. SAFETY see procedure for red lead above
  4. combine minium with massicot (can test varying degrees of yellow)
  5. paint minium and massicot mixed pigment on board

General
  1. The base of each of these trials will include verdigris and oil (I can experiment with types of oil used). The main variable is (usually yellow) pigment I add.
  2. I plan to paint each of the different combinations, with varying amounts of the additional pigment, on my test panel first to see resulting difference in shade of green.
    1. yellow ochre
    2. massicot
    3. weld (needs to be prepared before trial, depending on type of weld we source)
    4. broom flower (needs to be prepared before trial with verdigris)
  3. In a later trial, paint the most suitable, perhaps judged by color fastness, lack of runniness, time it takes to dry, etc. on metal casts.
  4. compare resulting color to dyed fabric using the same plant base (primarily weld).


<div>
<id>p158v_1</id>
<head>Colors for green leafs</head>

<ab>One usually paints them with oil colors, because distemper colors do not stay on. For marigold flowers, lightly ground minium for some of them; for more yellowish ones, mix in a bit of massicot. For green, the vert-de-gris is dark and too somber. If it is a yellowish-green, you can mix with the vert-de-gris a bit of yellow ochre and scudegrun. If the green is dark, mix in some coals made from peach pits, which makes a greenish-black, in the same way than the bone of an ox foot bone makes a bluish-black. And in such a manner, by judgement and discretion, put the color on the natural flower or leaf to see whether it is similar to the original. But paint it on very lightly so as not to cover the features of the work.</ab>
</div>

French
<div>
<id>p158v_1</id>
<head>Couleurs pour les feuilles vertes</head>

<ab>On les paint co{mmun}ement à <m>huile</m> pource que les <m>couleurs<lb/>
à destrempe</m> n’ont point de tenue. Pour fleur de soulcy,<lb/>
le <m>minium</m> peu broyé pour aulcuns, & pour d’aultres qui<lb/>
sont plus jaulnastres, un peu de <m>massicot</m> parmy.<lb/>
Pour vert, le <m>vert de gris</m> a fonds & est trop obscur.<lb/>
Si c’est un vert jaulnastre, tu peulx mesler avec<lb/>
le <m>verdegris</m>, un peu d’<m>ocre</m> jaulne & de <m>scudegrun</m>.<lb/>
Si le verd est obscur, mects parmy du <m>charbon<lb/>
de noyau de pescher</m>, qui faict un noir verdastre,<lb/>
co{mm}e le noir d’<m>os</m> de pied de bœuf faict bleuastre.<lb/>
Et ainsy, par jugement & discretion, mects la couleur<lb/>
sur la fleur ou foeille naturelle pour voyr<lb/>
si elle aproche bien. Mays couche la fort clere, pour ne<lb/>
couvrir pas les traicts de l’ouvrage.</ab>
</div>

Modern Sources

http://pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Genista+tinctoria

A very good quality yellow dye is obtained from the whole plant, but especially from the flowers and young shoots[4, 9, 11, 57, 66, 141, 169, 244]. It produces a very good quality green when mixed with woad (Isatis tinctoria)[11, 238]. Alum, cream of tartar and sulphate of lime are used to fix the colour[4]. The stems can be dried and stored until the dye is required[169]. A fibre obtained from the stems is used for coarse cloth and cordage[4, 169]. Plants can be used as a ground cover when spaced about 45cm apart each way[208]. The cultivar 'Flore Pleno' is always dwarf and is more reliable than the species[208].

Historical Textile Dyeing with Genista Tinctoria
ASPECTS TO KEEP IN MIND WHEN MAKING FIELD NOTES