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'Maya blue': The mystery dye recreated two centuries after it was lost
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Re: 'Maya blue': The mystery dye recreated two centuries after it was lost
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Re: 'Maya blue': The mystery dye recreated two centuries after it was lost
#13The chemistry of Maya blue is fascinating since Indigo degrades quickly. To keep the color
vibrant, now over centuries, it was encased in palygorskite clay. If you are interested in this topic, see also:
Veiled Brightness: A History of Ancient Maya Color with Stephen Houston and colleagues, University of Texas Press, 2009
Re: 'Maya blue': The mystery dye recreated two centuries after it was lost
#14man, the photographer really was intrigued by his blue painted hand. surely, there could have been other examples of the pigment's use
Hands are typically an excellent gray reference for photography, ensuring that the captured photos represent the color accurately given the photographer’s platform constraints. Hands also help the human brain correct for variations in lighting, color profiles, monitor calibration, and so on. Showing the dye color on skin ensures the highest fidelity conveyance of the hue to the reader possible without control over ho…
Thank you for sharing this--I was also confused by the hand photos but viewing them again with this reference point gave me a new appreciation for the entire work!
Re: 'Maya blue': The mystery dye recreated two centuries after it was lost
#15Since I started painting miniatures most of my time has been spent trying to recreate colors that I first mixed on a palette before scribbling down the recipe on a notecard.
It’s maddening. I ended up needing to buy a scientific scale and vortex mixer just to match my custom bone color, “Skel-u-Tan”. I mix it a bottle at a time now so I don’t have to think about too often. Don’t even get me started on Turquoise blends.
Skel-u-Tan Recipe: Mix Vampire Fang (Two Thin Coats), Dragon Fang (Two Thin Coats), and White (AK Intense) at a 1:1:8 ratio.
Re: 'Maya blue': The mystery dye recreated two centuries after it was lost
#16[flagged]
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Re: 'Maya blue': The mystery dye recreated two centuries after it was lost
#17Since I started painting miniatures most of my time has been spent trying to recreate colors that I first mixed on a palette before scribbling down the recipe on a notecard. It’s maddening. I ended up needing to buy a scientific scale and vortex mixer just to match my custom bone color, “Skel-u-Tan”. I mix it a bottle at a time now so I don’t have to think about too often. Don’t even get me started on Turquoise blend…
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Re: 'Maya blue': The mystery dye recreated two centuries after it was lost
#18Since I started painting miniatures most of my time has been spent trying to recreate colors that I first mixed on a palette before scribbling down the recipe on a notecard. It’s maddening. I ended up needing to buy a scientific scale and vortex mixer just to match my custom bone color, “Skel-u-Tan”. I mix it a bottle at a time now so I don’t have to think about too often. Don’t even get me started on Turquoise blend…
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Re: 'Maya blue': The mystery dye recreated two centuries after it was lost
#19man, the photographer really was intrigued by his blue painted hand. surely, there could have been other examples of the pigment's use
Hands are typically an excellent gray reference for photography, ensuring that the captured photos represent the color accurately given the photographer’s platform constraints. Hands also help the human brain correct for variations in lighting, color profiles, monitor calibration, and so on. Showing the dye color on skin ensures the highest fidelity conveyance of the hue to the reader possible without control over ho…
To add to this: the RGB colorspace reproducible by modern displays is limited compared to the full colorspace that humans can see so when photographing pigments, photographers need a proper reference for color correction. Wikipedia says the CIELCh of Maya blue is (76, 66, 238°) which is at the edge of the RGB colorspace. Depending on purity and composition, the real pigment might be just outside the range, so for a viewer to get a realistic portrayal they need that contrast too.
Mesoamerican cultures did use a lot of body paint for special occasions like warriors going into battle and religious ceremonies. This Maya blue would likely have been used by priests and other high status individuals in religious ceremonies, rather than the general population though.
Re: 'Maya blue': The mystery dye recreated two centuries after it was lost
#20To make Maya blue, May places ch’oj leaves in alkaline water – using lime or ash – for 24 hours in a concrete vat at his home. Then the mixture is strained and palygorskite clay, collected from nearby caves, is positioned at the bottom of the vat to absorb the tint. After the resulting blue clay is baked in an oven at about 250 degrees Celsius (480F), it is then ground into a fine powder and inserted inside a small flask, ready to sell.