Photos

I think you have noticed from other pictures of Sweden that we have a lot of red houses. The reason for this is the classical paint "Falu rödfärg" (Falu red paint). I also have a theme on that paint.

In the mine area, just 100 m from the museum is the factory that makes Falu Rödfärg. The paint is made from mine waste and even though the mine is closed now there is a surplus of waste material to last a couple of hundred years. The factory is surprisingly small considering the amount of houses painted in the paint.

Falun is a town in the middle of Sweden that has a copper mine that has been run since the 1300´s until the early 1990´s. In its heydays it was the largest copper mine in the world and now it is a World Heritage. In the 1600´s it was the wealth of that mine that gave us the economy to lease mercanaries and occupy a large part of continental Europes northern part. We still have a lot of art and cultural treasures in our museums from that time, brought back from the cities of Europe as loot and still thought of as Swedish national heritage. The famous Silver Bible from Prague is the most well known example.

About the paint, it has been used for a few hundred years and the pigment is made from a waste product from the mine, a form of red earth that surrounded the ore. After weathering the pigment is grinded and roasted and then mixed with boiled linseed oil and wheat flour(!) to a thick paint. the paint has a fine preserving effect for the wood. After drying the paint leaves a powder on the surfaces which easily comes of so if you lean on a wall you get red. No worry, it just as easily brushes of.

There is more to read about the paint and its history at: http://www.falurodfarg.com/