Mummy Brown pigment to handmade paint
Channel: Dirty Blue Tube
Date: 2023-09-08

Mummy Brown pigment… a bottle from 1857. Pigment acquired from a private collector, seeing binder for the fist time in ages, or maybe the first time ever. 

Said to be a pigment made out of ground mummy's, this pigment was a charred version of it. Something that was quite a common thing to do to get deeper hues and a finer pigment. 

Working with this, as well as Indian Yellow and Paris Green, was an exciting thing to do for me! The holy trinity of historic pigments are now complete! 

As a pigment itself, it felt a bit gritty at the start but broke down to a lovely smooth and fine paint. It smells a bit like an earth paint with a hint of unburnt coals. There is also a fragrance I can't quite put my finger on, but that might make sense looking at the origin of the pigment (I didn't sniff the dry pigment.. I don't like the idea of ''used to be'' people dust boogers up my nose..).

As a swatch, something interesting happened. I first made paint out of it, as usual. The hue went from an almost raw umber mixed with black to a warm burnt sienna. There is even some resemblance with Cassel Earth, though a bit warmer and more dull when dried. 

After this, I made a tiny swatch from unmulled pigment mixed in alcohol (will post this in my "brown" story highlights). This shows an amazing array of browns, going from yellowish to deep red. 

Another for the books! 

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