Cypriot Terra Umbra is a soft clay that was used as a pigment in the Archaic period on vessels and other terra-cotta artifacts. It produces color tones ranging from black to dark brown to orange/red, depending on the mode of application and firing. The colors appear when applied to a wet surface and fired around 900 degrees. At higher temperatures the pigment melts, and the color turns shiny black silver. Observations also showed that the orange/red colors could be obtained when the clay was more diluted, so that the application was more watery.
Terra Umbra was the more popular of two clays used in the Archaic period to paint red motifs; the other, less popular, was
Cypriot Terra Umbra is a soft clay that was used as a pigment in the Archaic period on vessels and other terra-cotta artifacts. It produces color tones ranging from black to dark brown to orange/red, depending on the mode of application and firing. The colors appear when applied to a wet surface and fired around 900 degrees. At higher temperatures the pigment melts, and the color turns shiny black silver. Observations also showed that the orange/red colors could be obtained when the c...
