Purple. One of my favourite colours. The history of purple dye is rather complicated and often problematic. Humans’ quest for colour is ancient and I’m fascinated by it. Logwood pigment isn’t the most lightfast, at least in my experience, but still is one of my favourites in my botanical watercolour palette. I’ve experimented countless times to extract the purpley watercolour pigment. It can be tricky. I share my recipe in my book 📕💜 . . #reel #reels #instareel #instareels #reelsinstagram #log

Making authentic Tyrian purple dye starts with extracting a murex snail gland. After a series of painstaking steps, Tunisian dye maker Mohamed Ghassen Nouira turns as much as 45 kilograms of snails into a single gram of pure Tyrian purple extract. When he's done, he can sell it for $2,700. Some retailers sell a gram of the pigment for over $3,000. In comparison, 5 grams of synthetic Tyrian purple costs under $4. So, why is real Tyrian purple so hard to make? And is that why it's so expensive? |

Oh purple, how I’ll continue to chase you! My favourite colour. The history of the colour purple is fascinating! There’s very few strong sources of natural purple. The Phoenicians’ “Tyrian purple” came from a species of sea snail now known as Bolinus brandaris, and it was so exceedingly rare that it became worth its weight in gold. It became a pigment reserved for royalty (aka Royal purple). Cochineal red dye (from insects) can be shifted to purple using alum. I’ve had great success capturing mo