The History of the Human Relationship With Colour

Early pigments were more prone to disappearing when exposed to bright light or over time. The Egyptians wanted a really wonderful, useful and easy to use blue pigment that kind of led to the creation of Egyptian blue. They had to find a source of copper, which was usually like the malachite,. And then they would mix that with sand. It would then be fired at very high temperatures - 900-1000 degrees. This was quite a complicated process. Not only do the temperatures have to be quite exact but the levels of oxygen have to be relatively precise as well.