Some pigments are gained from insects and molluscs. From this I could mention Tyrian purple pigment that is gained from dog whelk and a red carmine cochinel pigment that is gained from cochineal insects.

Then there is a large group of other different kind of synthetic pigments which can belong to oxide- based pigments, like from white pigments a zinc- and titanium dioxide white, or a  sulfide based pigments, like cadmium yellow.

Its good to remember that some pigments might have had a differtent name in different eras or places. For example green pigment in that is called in Europe Schweinfurt green (what a horrible word monster for a finnish talking dog) and is known in America emerald green has also (at least in Finland) known as an imperial or kaiser green. Likewise cobalt blue is also known in Finland as a porcelain blue.

One could glaim that the victorious developping of synthetic pigment started in 19th century, when many new pigments were produced from coal tar and those goal tar based pigments had a really bright tones and therefore they were really desirables in those times. But they were also quite poisonous. Many pigments were included arsenic, like already mentioned Schweinfurt green, and therefore  some of the 19th century manufactured green wallpaper carries unoffical nick name as a arsenic wallpaper but the green colour was not the only pigments to include a heavy dose on arsenic. For example some of the 19th red coloured wall paper might also include arsenic.

And why on earth she did this complicated? Wouldn't it be just easier take all the black paind down with only using ethanol or acetone poultice? And wouldn't it be better to take down the whole paint surface in one shot?

Well the first thing to keep in mind, when removing paint with this kind of solvent, is that both ethanol and acetone are quicly evaporating solvents and thats why it is better to work a small area with them. And then there happened to be a warm weather and because of that it was also better to work small areas at the time. Otherwise my friend would have most likely ended up to make a bit of pointless job if she would have used a solvent poultice in larger area and when she would have started removing solvent softened paint, the softened paint would had dryed and hardened back in the end side of the large covered area when the solvent would had evaporated. The ethanol in the other hand didn't quite well effected the paint's bottom layer in those table side areas and the acetone would have required a longer time to effect and would have probably manage to dry on that time even if she would have done as tight poultice as possible. So with that reason also it was better to do the paint removing in two parts.

At the table's deck my friend had noticed that the black paint did come off with using only ethanol. And so the paint come off from the table's deck quite nicely using only ethanol poultice, exept some small parts but with sanding those were managed to get off. Sometimes this surely is a bit of mystery industry.

After when the black paint had been removed and the beautiful oak wood had been revealed under the paint and the wood surface had been sanded, it was water staining turn. My friend used dark oak and a bit (mode)brown water stain mix. Then after staining it was application of shellac turn. Shellac varnish is mixture of ethanol and a lac bug's (named Kerria lacca) feces (which turn in the resin). Ugh phyi... those restores sure do use weird substance on their works. Shellac does dry fast after the application but you must wait one hour to make second application so that the shellac surface turns out to be good. You will make those shellac application about 10 times, sometimes less and sometimes more depens on what kind of polish level you want. In this case she made the shellac application 8 times. After  every few shellac layer the surface shall sanded lightly with really fine sandpaper.

But oh dear what a missery happened! At the first sanding layer of shellac my friend did used a bit too rough sandpaper and that's why there came a little tiny areas on the table desk where the stain did sanded a bit away. My friend tryed first make a reapairs on those small areas  but they started to bother her too much and she ended up to remove those shellac layers and stain that she already made and she made the whole staining and shellacking from the begining. Sometimes this kind of things can happen even the best of us. In the second time the shellac sandings went well and after the eight shellack layer application there was the last working stage to apply the wax to the table surface which was made with Liberon colourless antique wax.

At the end of the renovation together with my friend enjoyed just being at the palcony.
This was my  prattles at this time.
See you next time
-Protoni
 
p.s. Watch the short video about that table working process on Youtube and you can explore my friend's writings on Buy Me a Coffee.