Mineral Dyes

[zfigura]

Basically, I'm not quite sure how to do this. I know this at least:

Rutile (TiO₂), when finely crushed, is a brilliant white powder and is used as a white dye, in things like paper or paints. Other minerals, including limonite (discussed below) and pyrolusite, also are used for dyes/paints. However, those minerals are not the primary sources of yellow and violet respectively, and they are the only two I can find that are prominently used. I'd like to add an industrial dyes/paints system, which we can use to paint, like, everything, but I'm not sure entirely how. Current idea list:

• Rutile: white as discussed.
• Cadmium: red/yellow/orange. Specifically this is CdS for yellow, with Cd(S,Se) for orange and Cd(Se,S) for red (this is oversimplified, but so is Minecraft.) Problem is, CdS is rare, and usually is obtained as an impurity in ZnS (sphalerite.) CdSe is an even rarer impurity. Here are our other options for red/orange/yellow:
  • Vermilion (red), acquired from cinnabar (HgS).
  • Ochre, which provides red, yellow, brown, and purple. Yellow is limonite (Fe₂O₃·H₂O); red and purple are both hematite (Fe₂O₃), brown is goethite (FeO(OH)). All three are iron ores, thus possibly simplifying things. They are also found in clays.
  • Orpiment (As₂S₃), which we might use both for orange and as an arsenic ore. Alternatively, we could produce orange by mixing red and yellow.
• There are three main options I'm looking at for green: Paris green (Cu(C₂H₃O₂)₂·3Cu(AsO₂)₂) or cobalt green (CoZnO₂), both of which would involve chemistry and multiple sources (including, believe it or not, vinegar. Oddly enough, I smell vinegar while I'm writing this and I'm in the basement... Anyway.) Alternatively, green could be obtained by mixing yellow and...
• Blue. Ultramarine (powdered lapis lazuli) is the only one of my proposed pigments that Minecraft already has. Of course, we'll want to crush it like rutile. Alternatively, we could crush azurite (Cu₃(CO₃)₂(OH)₂) but I see no good reason to create a new ore.
• Purple. Again, with such a secondary color, we can always mix. However, there are also various dyes made from... lichen? Eww. So... looks like mixing for our secondary colors. Of course, there is pyrolusite, like I mentioned, but I think we should save that for...
• Black. 'Nuff said.

Actually, I guess I have a pretty good idea of how this will be done now: cinnabar for red, limonite (or possibly just iron ore?) for yellow (somehow), lapis for blue, rutile for white, and pyrolusite for white. Orange, green, and purple, as well as light and dark shades (and grey) can all be made by combination.

Any other colors we want? Comments on this system?

[atrain99]

Wait, rutile is reddish-brown in ore form, or white? I may need to fix the texture.

[zfigura]

No, no, it's reddish-brown; the texture is right. When you crush it (so we'll need to add a Crusher), the powder is white.

[atrain99]

How about a mortar and pestle instead of crusher initially?

[zfigura]

I actually was thinking that myself... the problem is, there's already a "primitive" white dye source, bonemeal. Industrial dyes are industrial.