The DIY Colour Recipe Book tells the story and shares the recipes for making the Colour Provenance palette, made up of 8 ancient colours such as: Whiteshell, Saffron, Ochre, Verdigris, Malachite, Azurite, Mummy Brown and Lamp Black, colours that have been long lost and forgotten over time and replaced by synthetic alternatives.
In this book, I tell the story of 8 colours, Whiteshell, Saffron, Ochre, Verdigris, Malachite, Azurite, Mummy Brown and Lamp Black by reviving its history, origins, secrets and authentic methods for producing them. Inspired in the purity of the ancient Egyptian colour palette and the materials used to manufacture them, I reinterpret these colours and recipes by resourcing raw materials.
My journey has taken me to many places and experiment with a range of different materials such as bones, eggs, mummies, minerals and shells as a modern alchemist. Mummy brown, one of her colours, has an interesting story, which its true to its origins, mummies were grounded down to make pigment.
This recipe book is a useful handbook for people to make and experiment with colour. For instance, recreating green from malachite, considered to be the first green ever used by humanity or white from ostrich eggshells, which was commonly used by Egyptians and even mummies for making an extinct colour 'Mummy Brown'.
This book will take you through a fascinating journey into the past to help us understand and appreciate colour in a different way today.
It shows key tools, secrets and my experience recreating these colours. The revival of historical recipes for making colour such as Cennino Cennini's 'Il libro dell'Arte' and ancient Egyptian manuscripts, were part of the process and inspiration.
Our DIY Colour Recipe Book is available as a printed version. Make your order now!
Photos: Kkgas, Laura Daza, Katya de Grunwald
