I thought about asking y’all to guess what this is but, honesty, it’s random and I’ve never seen it before so instead I’ll just tell you.
Maybe you can tell me why you think it’s blue now.
This is a close up shot of a shovel that had been at the bottom of a fire. (It was thrown in to burn out the handle that had broken off inside.) When I pulled it out the next day I found this brilliant blue color on parts of it!
John’s theory is that the iron in the shovel reacted with potash from the fire and created iron hexacyanoferrate better known as Prussian blue pigment. He also admits that this is not exactly his type of chemistry (the internet was heavily utilized in the theory making tonight) so other ideas are welcome!
Personally I have no idea why but I can tell you that the color was a beautiful surprise hiding in the ashes!
Behind the Willows 
Beauty can be found in some very strange places…
Indeed!
Reblogged this on anita dawes and jaye marie.
Must be the same chemistry as gun bluing.
Ahhhh! That would make sense!
Beauty’s hiding everywhere! x
So long as you go looking you can find it! ❤
It is fascinating how early painters had to make colours such as Prussian Blue. They couldn’t just go to the shop and buy tubes of paint. I think you should keep that as a treasure.