September blog

This month the paint team have looked at and purchased various resources such as “The Chemistry of Art” from the Royal Society of Chemistry. Research has been made into precipitation reactions needed to make some pigment that were used in the 18th century. So far we have made two pigments – white lead and chrome yellow. Research is now being carried out into what different oils were used to turn the pigments into paint.

The perfume group have looked at the constitution of perfumes. They have concentrated there research on citrus based notes and have identified a few methods of extracting citrus oils, namely: Enfleurage, absolutes, manual extraction and steam distillation. Main focus has been on steam distillation. A micro steam distillation kit has been purchased and small amount of oil have been extracted from oranges and lemons. A much larger steam distillation kit has been ordered from the United States, this should arrive in the next few weeks.

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