Did You Know - colour and dyes!

It takes about 3kg of lichen to make enough dye to colour one standard T-shirt! Lichen grow just a few centimetres per year, this makes it an extremely unsustainable natural dye, even though the by-products are bio-degradable.
The distinctive redcoats of the British Army were once dyed with cochineal! You need over 50,000 female Cochineal insects (Dactylopius coccus) to make just under 500 grams of pure carmine (cochineal). Worldwide there is over 200 tonnes produced each year, that’s 20 Billion dead insects per year!
The most ancient colour pigments known to humans are ochres from the earth and charcoal from fires.
Children between the ages of 2-8 years old spend an average of 28 minutes each day colouring and drawing.
The earliest known written record of dyeing textiles was recorded in China in 2600BC.
To dye a single Roman style toga you would need over 25,0000 murex or sea molluscs which would yield almost 1.4 grams of purple pigment. 453 grams of cloth dyed purple with Murex cost the equivalent $25,000 au in today's money! Only the official Roman Dye works was allowed to dye with murex, anyone else caught using the dye was killed!
In ancient times colour denoted status, this and the cost of murex meant that certain shades of purple were kept exclusively for Royalty.
The ancient Egyptians were the first people to create synthetic pigments - the beautiful blue colour common in ancient Egyptian jewellery, tombs and paintings.

Aspirin was rediscovered after 3500 years in 1867 at the dye manufacturer, Friedrich Bayer et Compagnie by industrial chemist Felix Hoffmann. At the time he was experimenting with a waste product of one of the dye components to find relief for his father's rheumatism.

It takes more than 8,000 litres of water to grow the cotton, manufacture the fabric and dye a standard t-shirt. Organic farming and dyeing methods cuts that amount down by more than half!
In medieval times a close fraternity of Guilds controlled the making of colour/dyes. During the 12th Century the most valued colour in Christendom was Vermilion (red/orange), it represented an alchemical union of spirit (mercury sulphide) and matter (sulphur). This form of synthetic Vermilion was used extensively in illuminated manuscripts. Natural vermilion was derived from fine crystals of Cinnabar, however, it was considered an inferior red to alchemical/synthetic vermilion.
Red is the preferred colour for warning signs because red elevates the blood pressure, heightening nervous tension, and is therefore the most likely colour to attract attention. Yellow is used in signs aimed at vehicle traffic because it is the most visible colour in the spectrum and can be seen from the farthest distance.
Sadly you can never reach the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. The rainbow that your eyes see (the raindrops in the atmosphere) is always moving away from you at the same speed as you are moving towards it!
In Roman times carrots only came in the colours of purple or white. By the 10th century purple carrots were known to be being grown in Afghanistan, Pakistan and northern Iran. In the 14th century purple, white and yellow carrots were imported to southern Europe. Black, red and green carrots were also grown at that time. Orange roots, containing the pigment carotene, were not noted until the 16th century in Holland. This only came about thanks to patriotic Dutch growers who bred the vegetable to grow in the colours of the House of Orange.
On natural fibre, Fibre Reactive Dyes, (which Magic Starfish use in their dyeing), are considered to be more permanent than other dye giving the dyed item colour longevity.
Judges' robes were not always black. In fact, they used to be as colourful as predicted by the fashion of the day. However, to mourn the death of Queen Mary II in 1694, judges wore black robes... and never changed back to another colour.
According to specialists and researchers who have done studies on colour and its affect of people, couples fight more in yellow kitchens, divas throw tantrums in yellow dressing rooms, and babies cry more in yellow bedrooms. However, children who are sickly, suffering from asthmatic problems will actually respond the best to yellow rooms, yellow stimulates the health of the chest, heart and lungs.