Jul 21 2008
What did the Haida make their paints out of?
Growing up in British Columbia, I always had an interest in Haida art and that spark was nurtured during a school visit to the UBC Museum where I saw many different examples of Haida art that was absolutely breathtaking. For me, that art represented what it meant to be from the Northwest coast and there was so much beauty in each carving and work of art that I looked at.
But that isn’t what the question is about so I should get down to the answer. Haida used many different materials to create their paint and all of them were from nature. Generally, the Haida mixed a naturally occurring pigment with a binder. This was a substance, like chewed salmon eggs, that gave the pigment a paint like quality. Here are a few naturally occurring pigments that gave the chewed salmon eggs its color.
- Black: Bone that has been burned to charcoal or magnetite, which is an iron ore.
- Blue/Green: Celadonate or Glauconite. This was also known as “green earth,” which is very rare.
- Red: comes from an iron ore called hematite.
For more information on Haida Art, visit The Respect to Bill Reid Pole Project
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