In alchemy, science and mysticism intertwine. Among the practical alchemical skills is dyeing of metals and gems. Alchemists from early times learn the arts of making cheaper stones and metals resemble expensive ones. Included: a couple of recipes from the ancients.
The Origins of Gemstone & Metal Dyeing in Alchemy
Alchemy is strongly linked to metallurgy, gemology and ancient medicine. Alchemists seek to define and release hidden properties of various substances. Mary the Jewess ascribes gender and characteristics to metals. Each has its own spiritual essence and transformative potential.
Early practitioners work with the transformative power of alchemy. As early as 250 AD texts describe the making of silver so even experts cannot tell the difference. While this can appear to be fraud, it's important to remember clients often ask for these alloys, dyes or platings.
In building, pillars and trim can be plated to imitate gold. The ancient Romans are masters of this craft. Jewelry resembling silver or gold is popular then as now. Alchemists produce stones to look like ruby, emerald (smaragdus), and other precious gems, from rock crystal or glass.
Not every noble lady wants to flaunt her real smaragdus in public. True gems on ornaments statues won't last long. And, those of modest means also prize a cunning imitation. Alchemy develops creative processes such as making quartz look like emerald.
The Science Behind the Magic
At the heart of metal dyeing lies a deep understanding of chemistry and metallurgy. Likewise gemology is a practice not learned overnight. Apprentices, students or aides, as they are called, can spend years learning the arts.
Legendary practitioner Bernard Trevisan, for example, spends seven years in a Cistercian monastery learning alchemy using common household items such as dung and eggs. He then travels the world collecting wisdom and spending his meagre income on false hopes.
In dyeing, alchemists use a combination of acids, bases, and salts to alter the surface properties of metals and gems. From preparing the substrate to applying the dyeing, alchemists follow a procedure of skill and personal wisdom.
Through the careful application of heat and reagents, metals and gems can be imbued with hues transcending the ordinary. Alchemy has always been about achieving the extraordinary, applied to metals, stones, fabric dyes and artists' pigments.
In metals, melting ores and creating alloys comes from ancient metallurgy, which employs a wealth of knowledge about which metals form alloys and which are resistant. By later antiquity metallurgy has developed from ancient arts for several thousand years.
The term chrysopoeia is interpreted to mean "gold making", as in false gold or gold from lead, in English speaking countries. This is a slight but significant deviation from the actual translation of Greek χρυσοποιία chrysopoiía, meaning goldsmith or goldsmithing.
The processes involved in gem and metal dyeing or coloring include:
Surface Treatments
Aging metals through exposure to certain air conditions, which creates patinas and specific hues. For example, copper naturally oxidizes over time, producing a rich green patina known as verdigris. This is used in emerald coloration as it's green leaning to blue.
Chemical Reactions
Alchemists often experiment with various chemical reactions to produce colorful results. For instance, boiling silver in a solution of certain vegetable materials enhances its reflective qualities, giving it a silvery-blue sheen.
Fire and Heat
The application of heat is crucial to both metalwork and dyeing. Heat not only changes the physical properties of the metals but also activate dye reactions, sometimes leading to unexpected and beautiful results.
From this may come the myth of transmuting base metals into precious ones. The term "noble metal" doesn't enter the lexicon until c. 14th century AD. Base metals are often used as bases for plating or gilding as metals like iron quickly rust or corrode on exposure to air.
Unlike noble metals, base metals are characterized by their tendency to oxidize or corrode easily and exhibit varying reactions when exposed to diluted hydrochloric acid (HCl), resulting in the formation of hydrogen. This group includes iron, nickel, lead, and zinc.
The Alchemical Approach to Dyeing Metals & Gems
The process of metal dyeing or metal coloration can be seen as a way to transmute, symbolically, one form of matter into another. Upon its emergence as a new form of creation, it's considered a craft. In the ancient world craftspeople are of low status.
In intellectual centers like Alexandria, layers of meaning are applied to colors and processes, from the gathering of the materials to creation of the Opus. Alchemy gains spiritual meaning, as metallurgy has, and theories of transmutation rise from a small rumble to a rousing roar.
They are however called something else, as the term transmutation doesn't appear until the late 14th century. It's from Old French transmutacion (transformation, metamorphosis), from late Latin transmutationem, from Latin transmutare (to change).
Metal dyeing involves the use of various organic and inorganic substances to impart color to metals. Alchemists sometimes employ plant-based dyes, metals (metal alloys) mineral pigments, and acids derived from natural sources. Common materials include:
Tannins from oak galls or certain tree barks, often used for darkening metals and gems. Tannins can also be used as mordants or primers for a substrate.
Iron oxide dyes for shades of red and brown - the pigment is separated from iron rust through acid treatment and numerous strainings, and can be heated to produce an earthy red especially desirable for rubies. The alchemical term for iron is Mars.
Copper salts, which yield vibrant greens and blues when reacted with copper. As a dye it makes a stone look like an emerald. Venus is the alchemical name for copper. Turquoise is another coveted color.
Plants such as celandine (toxic) and alkanet are used for their natural properties and dyes
Recipes from the Leyden & Stockholm Papyri c. 300 AD:
Preparation of Jasper: Heat the stone, then corrode it in alum along with vinegar and put it in verdigris and calves’ gall.
Preparation of Sunstone: Boil liquid pitch and alkanet, put the stone in it and it will thence become sunstone; or in the juice of mulberries, or in ground kermes with vinegar; or in Armenian blue with calves’ gall.
Metals:
1. Coloration in Silver: Such that it can only be removed by fire. Chrysocolla, ceruse, earth of Chios and mercury ground together; add some honey and having first treated the vessel with natron, coat (the vessel) with it.
note: “Ceruse” or “cerussa” is an ancient term for white lead. A well-known preparation, it's widely used as a cosmetic among Greeks and Romans.
2. Copper Equal to Gold (Writing in Letters of Gold): Copper equal to gold in color, as follows: grind some cumin in water; let it set carefully during three days; on the fourth, having wet (it) abundantly, coat the copper (with it) and write whatever you wish. For the coating and the writing have the same appearance.
3. Gilding of Silver: For gilding a vase of silver or copper without leaves (of gold), dissolve some yellow natron and some salt in water, rub it with this and it will be (gilded).
note: The chemical nature of “yellow natron” is uncertain. It's considered by some to be a sodium sulfide made by fusing sulfur and natural sodium carbonate.
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