The heavy cinnabar makes a more powerful binding medium necessary, the best being a paste of starch or a solution of gum-arabic. Careful crushing and a thorough grinding of the color are essential.
Genuine carmine has a red color with a slight bluish cast whereas cinnabar approaches yellowish-red. A pleasing, pure red can be produced by using Turkish red. A bright lustrous shade is obtained by adding some red aniline color.
If edges have to be colored blue, use ultramarine blue for dark, or cobalt blue for light.
Both colors must be mixed with gum-arabic or paste by grinding, and, if necessary, be diluted with water.
To produce yellow edges, chrome yellow is mostly used. It is for sale in all different shades from the brightest greenish-yellow, to the darkest orange-yellow.
In using it, like any other mineral or earth colors, it is finely ground and mixed, for use, with paste.
Green edges are often produced by using Schweinfurt's green or silk-green. By mixing light chrome-yellow with cobalt-blue, a beautiful rich green results.
For brown and black the well known colors umber, sepia, vegetable lamp-black, drop ivory-black and others are employed.
The color for producing violet edges can be best obtained by mixing cobalt-blue with Turkish-red or carmine.
It is always the most essential part of the process to grind the color uniformly with the paste, if it is desirable to obtain an edge of the same intensity of color.