Got topics you want to hear about?
August 21, 2009 at 20:05 1 comment
Trust me: I’m not short on material on quillwork dyes–but this blog is as much about what you want to know as it is what I can share! What do you want to see posted? More information from the literature–perhaps for dyes other than red? Postings on the science of the analysis? How it’s been working with museum collections generally and with Native American material culture specifically?
Let me know–I’m all ears!
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1.
Dale Kronkright | September 19, 2009 at 04:29
I’ve got TONS of questions. First, don’t know if your wordpress site facilitates this, but would be really cool if you could post a general structural model of the dye molecules, as you understand them, and help us understand, structurally why the yellow molecules are good violet, blue, slight green, slight orange and red absorbers, for example; likewise for reds.
Second, where in the structure of a quill is the color going and why? For that matter, how does the structure of a quill differ from the structure of a hair? We’ve all probably seen dermestid beetle damage to quill work and it is notable that once the cuticle cells are chewed away, the remaining cortical matrix of spongy medulla are undyed, suggesting that the dye penetrates poorly or is actually bonded to the compressed cuticular collapsed and compressed cells. Where is the color!! and chemically or physically, why do the dyes aggregate there and go no deeper?