Thanks! I think I found the statue you're describing: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PGdp__poAtM/T-LYMC-WgCI/AAAAAAAAL8Q/Nld5-rVqp7c/s1600/scan0004.jpg
You're right -- pretty garish... One does wonder what kind of dyes might have been used by Chinese peasants. This may be irrelevant, but I read that European peasants' clothing was actually quite colorful, and that they frequently re-dyed them as the natural colors tended to fade. Wow! That sounds like quite the project you have there. I haven't a clue about peasant costumes, sorry. But one thing you might want to think about is, colour was used a lot more that it would appear now. The statues pretty much appear to be a consistent mud shade, right? Well, I was watching one documentary about these statutes (I admit it, the things fascinate me), and apparently they used to be painted incredibly colourfully but the paint didn't survive time as well as the terracotta. There are only traces of the paint left, not enough that would show up on camera, so a German (or at least I think it was German) museum recreated one of the statues and then using the traces of paint found on it, painted as it would have been when it was "buried" and put it on display. Most people are so blown away by the garishness of the colours they have difficulty believing that is what it would have looked like. So after my long tangent...don't write off colours for the peasant kinds, because if those statues were anything to go by, apparently there wasn't a colour they didn't like in any combination. LOL! Just about enough to make your eyes bleed - as bad as the Greeks! Cheers, Danielle _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
