Ochre
pigment
Ochre ( OH-kər; from Ancient Greek ὤχρα (ṓkhra) from ὠχρός (ōkhrós) 'pale') is a family of natural clay earth pigments, made up of ferric oxide and varying amounts of clay and sand, ranging in colour from yellow to deep orange or brown. The term is also used for the colours produced by this pigment, especially a light brownish-yellow. A variant of ochre containing a large amount of hematite, or dehydrated iron oxide, has a reddish tint known as red ochre (or, in some dialects in England, ruddle). The term "ochre" is colloquially used to cover a range of different substances used for their colours in Aboriginal Australian art and ceremonial decoration, for instance the clay known as "white ochre" or "pipe clay" is derived from kaolin or gypsum.
Terminology
Ochre (sometimes "ocher" in American English,) is a natural clay earth pigment, consisting of a mixture of ferric oxide and varying amounts of clay and sand. The family of earth pigments known as ochre includes yellow ochre, red ochre, purple ochre, sienna, and umber. The major ingredient of all the ochres is iron(III) oxide-hydroxide, known as limonite, which gives them a yellow colour. A range of other minerals may also be included in the mixture:
The clays coloured with iron oxide derived during the extraction of tin and copper may also be known as ochre.
The term is also used for the colours produced by this pigment, especially a light brownish-yellow.
The range of colours include:
Yellow ochre, FeO(OH)·nH2O - hydrated iron(III) oxyhydroxide (limonite) also called gold ochre.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ochre” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.