Marl Lake: Preparing Maya Blue

So here we are! After preparing the polygorskite and the woad it’s time to make my Maya Blue pigment.

Maya Blue is a really interesting pigment. By itself, the blue of indigo darkens to black over time but once this plant material is embedded into the polygorskite clay, the results are amazing permanent. Instances of Maya Blue used in the harsh weather conditions of central America have not faded since their application in over a millennium!

I found that the best way I could mix them together was using my muller, but if I hadn’t broken my mortar and pestle I suspect that would have worked well too. It wasn’t hard, and the results are a good colour (something I was a little worried about, given how dark the polygorskite I found was). Now that I’ve mixed them together all that remains is finding the right roasting temperature and duration to create a durable pigment but keep it blue …

In researching a little bit about how Maya Blue is thought to work, I came across a really interesting site that uses cookies to explain. Take a look at: http://backreaction.blogspot.com/2008/03/cookies-palygorskite-and-maya-blue.html.