Once more valuable than gold, ultramarine blue, now sold in its synthetic ... a plastic additive used in paint. Then, paint companies faced a shortage of flaxseed oil, which some have blamed ...

Recent investigations into this shade of blue -- ultramarine blue ... status of a work's commissioner. Ultramarine was the pigment often reserved to paint the mantel of the Virgin Mary.

This involved grounding the lapis lazuli stone to powder and then kneading it with a paste of resin, beeswax and oil ... blue paint, but we do see the effect on the stone itself, and the ...