SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 21. 1960
HERALD AND NEWS, KLAMATH FALLS. OREGON
PAGE THREE
Color Plays Larger Part In Our Lives Than Many Realize; Rules Life
By MARGARET KNOLL
Color plays a large part in the
lives of people. Color can affect
disposition; make us happy, sad
irritate us or give us a feeling
of well-being. Color has found its
way into our daily speech. Ex
pressions such as a gray day,
seeing red, a dark brown taste or
I'm so blue are common.
Colors are the tools of the artist
Colored threads are the tools of
the weaver just as much as
hammer and nails are the tools
of a carpenter.
Today when you want to paint a
picture, a house or make a dress
you walk into the store and come
out with a tube, a can or a few
yards of any combination of col
ored material that appeals to you.
This was not always so.
Let's trace a few colors back to
their beginnings and find out
where they came from.
The painter's original color chart
v . t",,
ELSIE McNEE, now of San
Francisco, was a charter
member and first vice presi
dent of the Klamath Art As
sociation established in July
1947. Articles of incorpora
tion were granted to LaVern
Swanson, Elsie I. McNeo and
Helen J. Balentine. Mrs. Mc
Nee is presently church sec
retary, Glide Memorial Me
thodist Church in San Francisco.
might well have been the rain
bow. We can't make color more
beautiful than the sky colors but
with the use of pigments we can
imitate them.
Many pigments are found in na
ture: Yellow ochre is a clay dug
Iroin the earth; cobalt blue comes
front a mine in the form of ore
gamboge is a native yellow gum
I r oin Siani; green earth is also a
native clay colored by small
amounts of iron and manganese
Brazil wood yields a blood red
extract used from very early
times. When the Americas were
discovered there was so much of
it that the state of Brazil was
named for it.
Ivory black was made from
burned chips of ivory, while lamp
black is the soot from burning
oils and fats.
Umber is a natural earth color.
Yellow was obtained from the
dried petals of saffron (crocus sat
vus).
Ultramarine was originally made
by grinding a semi-precious stone
lapis lazuli, and purifying it by
a long process to remove the gray
rock.
There are three colors to consid
er particularly: indigo, madder
and purple.
Excerpts are from The History
of Indigo," by W. A. Vetterli
and "The Production of Indigo"
by R. Haller, published in the
Ciba Review, April 1951.
In the history of the dyeing
industry indigo holds a unique
place by reason of its irresistible
rise to supremacy, among dye
stuffs and its equally rapid de
thronement by the modern chem
ical colors. Though well known
it was so precious that it re
mained rare in use even in the
Middle Ages. But the discovery by
Vasco da Gama (1498) of the sea
route to the East Indies put if on
the market where it ousted its most
dangerous competitor, only to be
n turn defeated by the rapid ad
vance of the coal tar color in
dustry. "Indigo is primarily obtained
from the sub-tropical plants of
Hie genus Indigofera, which be
longs to the family of the Papil
ionaceae. Of the bush-like varie
ties numbering about 350 Indigo-
DR. MARION LUTEN M.D., a member of the Art Associa
tion, is one of few enthusiasts who work in metals. She dis
plays exquisite sterling silver teapot and sugar bowl, left
foreground made in Portland under instruction of Lambert
Deutschman, Allied Arts and Metal Workers. The two pieces
complete a handsome set matching the coffee server and
cream pitcher, heirloom pieces. Dr. Luten, who has prac
ticed in Klamath Falls about one year, also works in copper
and enamels, combination which resulted in the neck
laces and earrings in foreground of picture.
fera tinetoria, a semi-bush about
five feet high, is the most im
portant.
"Success in growing indigo de
pends largely on the careful selec
tion of the seed, which must be
fresh and absolutely ripe. It should
be sown on high ground enjoying
a good rainfall in fairly rich soil
Little furrows are drawn about
16-18 inches apart and the seed
planted at intervals of two and
one half inches.
After three to five days germin
ation sets in, and the plant rap
idly grows to a height of eight
to nine and one half inches, burst
ing into blossom for the first time
alter about three months. It is at
this stage that the plant bears the
maximum yield of indigo, so the
first crop can be harvested
soon as, among other things, the
leaves display a slightly yellow
coloring. The natives cut the plant
with sharp sickles close to the
ground. The plants are tied
bundles and immediately pro
cessed. They are either put
steeping tanks the same evening
dried in wooden frames till
the green color has turned to an
even bluish gray. The bundles
quickly begin to ferment in the
tanks, a process reducing the indi
can contained in the plants and
producing indigo white. With an
outside temperature of about 95F
fermentation takes about 18 hours.
When the liquid takes on a green
ish yellow color and becomes pleas
anlly sweet smelling it is time
to interrupt the fermenting pro
cess.
The liquid is now run off into
tank on a lower level, the beat
ing tank, in which it is beaten
with sticks for hours. This
procedure serves not only to add
oxygen but also to release what
ever carbonic acid may be pres
ent. The oxygen converts indigo
vhite by oxidation to water insol
uble dye stufl, which during the
beating operation is formed into
solid grains or flakes and is ult
niately precipitated to the bottom
of the tank.
To insure the removal of all
impurities it is placed in separate
vessels and again raised to the
boiling point in water whereby
the indigo gets the typically violet
satin-like color. When the doughy
mass has cooled and the water
has been run off it is filled into
bags and carefully pressed to
dry.
Drying is done either in frames
out in the open or in tall well-
ired drying sheds. By means of
brass wires the caked indigo is
cut into cubes of about 200 grams
and left to dry for at least
days, the pieces being turned ev
ery two or three days. Indigo is
now ready to go to the dye mak
ers.
Purple:; Excerpts on the subject
by Wolfgang Born, published in
the Ciba Review, December 1937:
"An ancient legend explains the
discovery of purple as follows
The sheep dog of the Phoenician
God, Melkarth, once bit a shell
fish from which its jaws were
stained a bright red that turned
to purple. His master seeing this
realized the significance and dyed
a gown in the new color which
he duly presented to his mistress
the nymph Tyros."
"The oldest place where the
FANCY THIS
CHICAGO (UPD-Packaged ce
real is so fancy it turns up these
days in desserts at lunch and din
ner. Make strawberry sundaes by
placing sliced, sweetened f r e i h
berries, puffed rice, puffed wheat.
and sweetened whipped cream in
layers in parfait glasses, ending
with strawberries. Serve immedi
ately after preparing. For two cups
of berries, use equal amounts of
each cereal and one cup cream,
whipped. ,
dye was manufactured was the
Phoenician town of Tyre. Already
in the eighth century the prophet
Ezekiel mentions purple as a Ty
rian specialty. The purple indus
try of Tyre survived the political
decline of Phoenicia. From the
time of the Emperor Diocletian
(300 A D.) the factories of Tyre
were run by the state. The in
dustry was not destroyed until the
conquest of Tyre by the Arabs in
(138.
"Purple is the mucus of a gland
adjacent to the respiratory cavity
in the shell fish Purpuredae found
in warm seas.
"The production of purple was a
laborious and expensive process
in ancient times. That explains
why it was one of the costliest
articles of luxury. Enormous num
bers of shell fish were necessary
to yield a very small quantity ot
the dye. Pliny reports in detail
on the manner of catching them
and his descriptions, supplement
ed by other authorities, enable us
to form a fairly accurate opinion
on the process.
The method of capture was
based on the observation that they
preyed on other shell fish. It is
reported that other shell fish were
lowered in baskets as bait and
when the purple shell fish at
tached themselves to the bait the
baskets were- hauled to the sur
face. In all cases the fish were
kept alive until a sufficient quan
tity had been gathered, as only
Hie freshly killed supply the right
juice for the dye."
Madder: Excerpts from the cul
tivation of madder by G. Schaef-
er published in Ciba review May
1941:
'How closely the madder plant
is linked with the ideas of red is
revealed by the names given to
it in various languages. The
Greeks called madder "erythro
danon," the Romans "rubia" and
the German for the plant was
'rote." All these names are the
commonest terms for red in the
respective languages. Like wood-
uff, which also furnished a red
dye of considerable fastness, the
herbaceous madder plant, a mem
ber of the family of Rubiaceae, is
a hardy growth; it reaches a
height of between two and four
feet. The genus Rubia occurs in
many countries of the tropical and
temperate zones; it is native to
Mexico, but is most widepsread
in Europe and Asia.
"The part of the madder plant
which contains the dye. is the
root; the bulk of the pigment is
contained in the red mass situat
ed between the outer skin and the
woody heart of the root. The dye
is present in the form of gluco
ides, which may be separated
comparatively easily. The most im
portant of these is rubcrythric
acid, which is split up into sugai
nd alizarin, the dying agent. The
tops of the madder plant formed
an excellent feed for cattle, thougli
they had the peculiarity of impart
ing a reddish hue to milk and a
ellowish hue to the butter.
'Madder was known to the
Ancients but very few details ol
its cultivation have come down to
us. The Mishna, the collection ol
ancient Hebrew laws and precepts
which formed the basis of the
Talmud, permitted the growing
of madder, though only for do
mestic, and not for commercial
use. It also decreed (hat only
wooden implements were to be
used in the harvest. Pliny the El
der (A. D. 23-7J) tells of madder
cultivation in the neighborhood ol
Home."
"In Europe the process of re
ining the madder consisted in
pounding, grinding, and sieving
the roots in order to separate the
hcirt of the root, which continued
he largest quantity of pigment.
Die Dutch were not only the lead-
ng growers of madder, but also
ghly skilled refiners.. ,
"The roots were dried by means
of peat or coal fired in special
drying houses which were under
the supervision or an experienced
dryer. The madder roots were
then pounded in a mill driven by
horses, scrupulous care being tak
en that this work was not per
formed in bright daylight, but
rather at night by lamplight. It
was a firmly rooted belief among
the Dutch madder growers that
pounding roots in the sun would
destroy the luster of the pigment.
The mortars in which the roots
were pounded consisted of hollow
oak blocks; the pestles used were
of wood shod with iron.
"In southern France where the
weather was more favorable, it
was possible to dry the roots on
paved ground in ' the open air,
though they were never exposed
to the rays of the sun. This pro
cess required between three and
four days, but it did not suffice
to dry them complelely. For the
final slagc of drying an oven was
.lecessary.
"The roots were'placed in an or
dinary baker's oven after the
bread had been removed. After
that the dried roots were threshed.
Before the madder was taken to
the mill it was treated in a mix
ture of potash and cow dung which
iiad been kept for a year. The du
ration of this treatment varied be
tween three and four days accord
ing to the grade of the madder."
These arc some of the old ways;
we ve come a long way since
then. Modern machinery and
chemistry have taken the work
out of making or mixing color
today. Yet some of us want to
try our hand at making our own
dyes and producing from native
materials things of beauty. This is
not-because we need to, but be
cause of the feeling of creative
achievement earned the hard way.
Making something with our own
hands gives us a sense of satisfac
tion. Our own Klamath Basin
holds much in the way of ma-
crial for those who want to use
them.
Dyes and pigments can be made
from the things around us. Stag
horn moss yields a yellow green
dye; there is some iron and man
ganese so possibly there is a nice
een clay; as near as Quarts
Mountain there is cinebar, or here
in town the root of Oregon grape
makes a beautiful yellow. The ber
ries make a deep red dye.
There are many other possibili
ties in original colored ceramic
slazes as well as dyes for yams.
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