Pigments, Colors & Other Stories | María C.J | Substack

Pigment Guide #3: how to make your own watercolors

In the third installment of the Pigment Guide, I'll teach you how to make watercolors with the pigments we made in the previous post. There is also a…

Feb 8 • María C.J

Royal red: from the smallest insects to the deepest color

Did you know that there are three insects, from three different continents, that have been used for millennia to make red dye?

Jan 25 • María C.J

Pigment Guide #2: How to turn minerals into pigments

In the second post of the Pigment Guide, you'll learn the nitty gritty of making your own pigments: from found rock to soft, colored powder.

Jan 11 • María C.J

What is treasure? And why do we seek it at all costs?

In 1539, a Franciscan friar named Marcos de Niza came to Francisco Vázquez de Coronado, a governor of New Spain (present-day Mexico) with a marvelous…

Dec 28, 2025 • María C.J

Invite your friends to read Pigments, Colors & Other Stories!

Share the newsletter with friends and family, and get special rewards when they use your referral links to subscribe.

Dec 21, 2025 • María C.J

Most Popular

Blue: the most elusive pigment

Aug 4, 2025 • María C.J

The birth of beauty

Oct 12, 2025 • María C.J

My experience with ochre, an extraordinary material

Jul 21, 2025 • María C.J

The fascinating palette of yellow pigments in South Asia (II)

Sep 15, 2025 • María C.J

Recent posts

Pigment Guide #1: Finding pigments in nature

In the first post of the Pigment Guide, I cover all you need to know to go outside and finding mineral pigments in nature.

Dec 14, 2025 • María C.J

Symbols in The Expulsion from Paradise

Genesis is the first book in the Torah or Old Testament.

Nov 23, 2025 • María C.J

Bonus post #4: "Art for art's sake" in Prehistory

Why did our prehistoric ancestors paint? Did they have a clear intention, or is it possible they were just playing around?

Nov 9, 2025 • María C.J

The Smith and the Devil: the archetype of the trickster in all human stories

Once upon a time, a blacksmith made a deal with a malevolent supernatural being—in later versions the Devil, Death, or a Djinn—to give his soul in…

Oct 26, 2025 • María C.J

The birth of beauty

What is beauty? When did we start to interpret the world as beautiful or ugly? And how does beauty fit into cognitive evolution?

Oct 12, 2025 • María C.J

Pigments, Colors & Other Stories

Pigments, Colors & Other Stories

An interdisciplinary look at color, art, cognition and the things that make us human.

Newsletters

The Pigment Guide is a series of posts where I will teach you how to make paint from earths and soils (plus other recipes and techniques to make your own binder, charcoal, watercolors, and more) using the natural resources available in your landscape.

The latest from

María C.J

Pigment Guide #3: how to make your own watercolors

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Dive into the history of pigments and color through art, archaeology and anthropology

Pigments' Research

Royal red: from the smallest insects to the deepest color

Did you know that there are three insects, from three different continents, that have been used for millennia to make red dye?

Jan 25 • María C.J

The fascinating palette of yellow pigments in South Asia (II)

In the second post about historical yellow pigments in South Asia I talk about saffron, orpiment and turmeric.

Sep 15, 2025 • María C.J

Blue: the most elusive pigment

There haven't been many historical pigments - the kind of mythical recipes that were connected to specific cultures - but all of them were blue.

Aug 4, 2025 • María C.J

My experience with ochre, an extraordinary material

One of the most important materials in the history of humanity, and one of the most overlooked by historians

Jul 21, 2025 • María C.J

The fascinating palette of yellow pigments in South Asia (I)

Lately, I have been trying to learn about color symbolism in Asia, and expand my knowledge of pigments and dyes in other cultures.

Jul 7, 2025 • María C.J

History of Colors

A color challenge 🌈

I asked my Substack readers to give me a topic about history or culture and promised I'd find a connection to color. These were their questions, and my…

Sep 1, 2025 • María C.J

Bonus post #2: Why are barns red?

Why are the classic North American barns red? The answer lies in a place far from America, and quite unexpected.

Aug 25, 2025 • María C.J

Chromatic Rebel #2: why is the West so color-minimalist?

Have you ever observed that Western culture seems to be more minimalistic in terms of color than any other? Here I examined the reasons behind it.

May 26, 2025 • María C.J

Chromatic Rebel #1: no to beige

Why does it seem like lately everything is beige? What´s behind this trend?

Apr 25, 2025 • María C.J

Color and power: a short history of purple

When you think about the color of power, you may think of golden, because we understand the value of gold throughout history. But what if I tell you…

Mar 31, 2025 • María C.J

Human cognition

What is treasure? And why do we seek it at all costs?

In 1539, a Franciscan friar named Marcos de Niza came to Francisco Vázquez de Coronado, a governor of New Spain (present-day Mexico) with a marvelous…

Dec 28, 2025 • María C.J

Symbols in The Expulsion from Paradise

Genesis is the first book in the Torah or Old Testament.

Nov 23, 2025 • María C.J

Bonus post #4: "Art for art's sake" in Prehistory

Why did our prehistoric ancestors paint? Did they have a clear intention, or is it possible they were just playing around?

Nov 9, 2025 • María C.J

The Smith and the Devil: the archetype of the trickster in all human stories

Once upon a time, a blacksmith made a deal with a malevolent supernatural being—in later versions the Devil, Death, or a Djinn—to give his soul in…

Oct 26, 2025 • María C.J

The birth of beauty

What is beauty? When did we start to interpret the world as beautiful or ugly? And how does beauty fit into cognitive evolution?

Oct 12, 2025 • María C.J

Bonus Posts

Bonus post #4: "Art for art's sake" in Prehistory

Why did our prehistoric ancestors paint? Did they have a clear intention, or is it possible they were just playing around?

Nov 9, 2025 • María C.J

Bonus post #3: a winery, a shipwreck and a treasure hunt

Not long ago, I was walking with my family in the town of Montilla (Córdoba, Spain) and, as we passed by an old stone mansion, my dad said to me: do you…

Sep 28, 2025 • María C.J

Bonus post #2: Why are barns red?

Why are the classic North American barns red? The answer lies in a place far from America, and quite unexpected.

Aug 25, 2025 • María C.J

Bonus post #1: The perfect art forgery

Art + chemistry = masterpiece?

Aug 11, 2025 • María C.J

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