This morning , I decide to do a little research on pigments and end up with a full hour of reading some useless info on a molecular structure of Zink Oxide (well , useless to me , but it is not so for the people who make pigments avaliable to us ). The history behind each color is what I find interesting .

How much experimantation went into finding just the right source for each color is just amasing . The thought takes me back .

I grew up in a small town which had no market economy . The demand on new products was great , but the goverment had control over all the industries in the country , and because most of the leaders had no business degree , the people suffered from bad management .

The art supplies were scares and pricey , but of a good quality . There was no such a thing as student grade materials . Everything was professional grade . The pigments were rich in both paints and color pencils . But because of their price , you had to make them last . Or make your own .

I've tried almost anything I could get my hands on for a paint substitute : black tea as Brown ; wild red cherry juice for Dark Red ; egg or milk as a binder . Too bad the colors didn't last if were exposed to sun , or the picture would get eaten by always hungry roaches ( the white tiny dots that appeared on my paintings after a few days were a mystery solved when one night I turned the light on and saw the nasty creatures running from my new painting ) ...

I moved to US in 1998 . I shop at art supply stores . My Prismacolors came from one of them ( don't recall the name ), and I have a special place in my heart for each color pencil on my desk .