Everyone knows that copper has a red-metallic color with a noble radiance. But the common yar-copperfish paint is not painted in shades of red at all. It was widely used several centuries ago in icon painting, for dyeing fabrics and household utensils, for a wide variety of decorative works. It has not lost its significance today, although the manufacturing technology has undergone many changes. In our article, we will examine in detail what kind of paint is this, what is its history and modern industrial significance.
What is a blistering jar?
Paint is obtained through complex chemical processes. In the language of science, this complex inorganic compound is called the copper salt of acetic acid. The crystals of this substance have a saturated blue-green color. They are also used for the manufacture of paint.
Varieties and colors of Yar
Green paint yar-copper is the most common. It can have different shades, from cold grassy to warm golden green, like the wings of a summer beetle. In some sources, it is called the English fury, because once such a paint was produced in England. Today, production has been established in many countries, including Russia. This yar is obtained as a result of exposure to copper of wood acetic acid.
There is another variety - the blue spring-coppers, which is often called French, but unlike the first grade, it is really mainly made in Montpellier (France). To obtain such a yari, copper is subjected to prolonged exposure to fermented squeezed grapes.
The properties
The paint, prepared on the basis of the yar-copperfish, is considered quite persistent and covering. Before applying, the surface must be sanded and degreased so that the yar falls flat. It is better to apply paint in thin layers. The drying time of the paint layers is average.
Artists sometimes use paint also as glue, medium-sized decorative elements firmly and firmly adhere to the fresh layer.
Historical note: how the Yar-Medyanka was prepared in Russia
It is noteworthy that people have learned to make such a paint not so long ago. The yar-copper coin in Russia was well known, where it was brought, most likely, from Byzantium. Copper easily reacts not only with laboratory reagents, but also with much more affordable agents. Once, people noticed that this metal can change color even from contact with the skin. Perhaps this was the beginning of experiments with copper. There was no talk of any laboratory tests in the old days, but there are a lot of organic acids in berries, fruits, vegetables, parts of plants.
Today it is known what the Yar-Medya in Russia was made of. For this, copper plates or shavings, as well as peas soaked in water, were used. The mixture was infused in a warm place for about two weeks. During this time, the fermentation products of starch contained in peas reacted with copper, resulting in the necessary substance, casting blue or green.
On the basis of the obtained substance, paints were made that were used for dyeing linen, cotton and wool fabrics, yarn, household items, buildings and structures, and in later times also when writing books. Icon painters, artists, illustrators also used the yar.
Production and application in the modern world
The pigment manufacturing process differs from the old one, but it is based on the same soaking of copper with a reagent. Modern manufacturers use large vats, in which thin copper plates and woolen rags moistened with wood acetic acid or grape squeezed are layered in layers. As soon as a pigmented plaque (jar) begins to form on the metal sheets, gaps are established between the copper and the fabric to allow air access. The procedure for the subsequent build-up of the layer of yari lasts one and a half to two months. During this time, each sheet is overgrown with a layer a few centimeters thick. The spring is relatively easily separated from the metal base, and then with the help of special reagents and water it turns into dough. It is defended in the sun, so that after grinding and prepare for further use as a pigment.
According to modern classification, to call the resulting paint mineral, as is usually the case, is not entirely correct, because its composition also contains organic matter. But such a definition is quite common and familiar even to those who know well how to get copper brass yar.
The described method is the most common, but not the only one. Other more sophisticated technologies are sometimes used to produce pigment.
Today, yarl-copper is used in the same areas as before. On its basis, various paints are prepared for coloring synthetic and natural surfaces and fibers.