Blue: Cobalt's Price

Cobalt is the hardiest, most giving of the colorants we dare to mix into our glazes. With 1400 degrees of stability, cobalt oxide gives the richest blues with the most minimal input. A impurity of one percent will turn the clearest translucent glazes, into a stormiest oceans of blues. Cobalt got the goods.


Mined from our planets crust, cobalt is a vital part of humans existence. Wedged into the heart of b12 compounds, cobalt keeps our heart pumping and our blood flowing. Cobalt is a tenacious little beast. The 27th element can't exist as a pure metal, the oxygen atmosphere of our planet dictates that. This mineral is always linking into greater ever more complicated forms. Cobalt's origin is as varied as its minerals are. From copper sedimentary rocks, to iron laced meteorites, cobalt is always hitchhiking a ride with other elements. With each paring arises a new relationship, a new colour, a new pigment. Calcite cobalt crystals glow rose-pink, while extraterrestrial metals shines with a yellow-hued steel. My favorite marriage though is with silica. The part one of clay's two part recipe, silica loves cobalt. Fired to a fiery 800 degrees Celsius cobalt dumps oxygen choosing instead to move in with silica. In this apartment of violent chemistry, cobalt and silica together glow with a blue aura. It is a mistake to see cobalt individually as blue; but correct to recognize the relationships it forms as blue. If you see a cobalt blue, you know are looking at a ionic bond formed in a hot mess of at least 800 degrees. Cobalt manages to combine with other elements, producing something more valuable the sum of it's parts.

“According to general belief the Kobolds belong as much to the race of men as the world of spirits, they retain the size and shape of infants, and that knife which so often is noticed form of the caudal appendage, is nothing less than that the instrument with which they have been put to death. 

There exists, however, quite a number of troublesome hobgoblins, who turn the house upside down and deprive the people whom they bear a grudge of peace and sleep, till they well nigh drive them mad” 

Myths of the Rhine 

1874 

X. B. Saintine 

Schneeberg, the tallest mountain range in lower Austria. As you march east it is the last great momentum of Europe's alps. The hills eventually easing off as you arrive at the fruitful plains of the Danube river, the rock still remains in sight. A three sided beast of eroded limestone. This is where miners spoke in hush tones of the demon of the mountain. Inside the caverns that a blue mineral lay men's skin grew thick with blackened tumors. Among this, they say, the demon lay. A demon that damned an empty mouth with taste of metal. A demon that left men blind when the moon rose. A demon who ate at men's insides leaving their feces red with blood. This is Kobold, the ethereal creature of German folklore. A shape-shifter by nature this creature, lived in rocks while we live in air. They tempted mortals with rich veins of gold and silver that when smelted turned into poisonous fumes. They liked to toy maliciously with us. Many humble miners made offerings in hopes the demon would stop. The demon did not stop. Seeing the gifts as encouragement the creature crumbled earth onto mortals whom dared to enter it's cavern. It was in the rocks where the Kobold lived, that the men who mined, died. From these ages the metal, Cobalt was named and forever burdened with a demeanor of the sinister and the occult.




Cobalt isn't just a blue giving mineral, but an energy gifting one too. Cobalt is in high demand today, not for it's decorative qualities but for the power it supplies. Densely packed into a lithium battery cobalt gives your iPhone an extra burst of energy, lasting longer and delivering more. The miner's of this precious mineral are no longer Austrian but Norwegian, Canadian and Congolese. The worlds largest supply lay in the South East of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In a province once called Katanga, rich sedimentary rock formations supply the DRC with what the world desires. This region has been coveted and fought over for centuries. The power that resisted King Leopold and assassinated Patrice Lumumba, grew from these mines. From the uprisings for an autonomous state to the crushing repression of a unified government these buried treasures have added diesel to burning conflicts. In the courts too battles ensues. Apple and other tech giants find themselves under fire for the use of child labor in order to keep the batteries flowing. Cobalt can befoul even the cleanest of suits; It's allure so enchanting, we will make deals with the demons in the rocks in order to obtain it.




It was never Cobalt that made those Austrian miners sick. It was the impurities arsenic and nickel. Smelted these elements welled into a noxious smoke that poisoned the stricken workers. But alas as the rock was blue, we linked the curses of goblins to the 27th element. That's the thing about cobalt though, its qualities lay in it's relations. Cobalt's links with silica still gives us blue. Cobalt's links with wealth still give us conflict.

Kobold oh you contemptuous heathen why you must still play these malicious games with us?

                     



This is a series all about blue. What is it and why we love it? The images accompanying the text are microscopic shots, taken of my glaze tests. I've found this perspective really helps me to focus in and investigate the material, revealing new details I've never seen. Hopefully by understanding blue a little better, we can understand our own pale, blue dot a little better.