Ten Years of Pigment Sourcing: What the Mine-to-Museum Route Taught Us
Ten years ago, I stood in a cobalt mine in the DRC, watching workers haul sacks of ore under a brutal sun. That image never leaves you. It reshapes how you see the blue on a museum wall, the pigment in a paint tube, the glaze on a ceramic tile. This article is the result of a decade of sourcing decisions—some good, some painfully wrong. It's for artists, manufacturers, and curators who've realized that pigment isn't just chemistry. It's a web of human choices, environmental costs, and trade-offs you can't fully resolve. No grand answers here. Just the practical lessons I've learned, one shipment at a time. Who Should Read This, and What Happens When You Don't Buying a tube of paint is not a political act. Until it's.