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@crystallised-cricket.com Sep 19, 2026, 12:14 AM

I'm still salty that #Cupirte beat #Orpiment in the first round of #MinCup26 - so today's vote is for #Andalusite out of spite. Plus it has got a more interesting crystal structure, so there's that too.

Image representing the crystal structure of Cuprite - here red spheres represent oxygen atoms, and blue spheres represent copper atoms. The structure has been expanded over a,b and c axes to show off quite how boring it actually is. Just copper bonding to oxygen, not even making up a polygon. Literally without the magnetic properties of this mineral has it would be a right snooze-fest. The representation is drawn in VESTA from entry #7351 in the American mineral database

Image representing the crystal structure of andalusite- here red spheres represent oxygen atoms, light blue spheres/polygons represent aluminium atoms and dark blue spheres/polygons represent silicon atoms. The representation is drawn in VESTA from entry #728 in the American mineralogist database

@mineralcup.bsky.social Sep 6, 2026, 8:50 AM

Congratulations to #Cuprite for defeating #Orpiment by a 13% margin over 1127 votes in #MinCup26 R1M5

Orpiment was slowly closing the gap near the end, but just not quickly enough. Better luck next time!

@sararah.bsky.social Sep 5, 2026, 11:46 PM

I have to say, I am really impressed by @minouette.bsky.social commitment to informing us about #orpiment ! I have learned so much 🧡 #MinCup26

@minouette.bsky.social Sep 5, 2026, 10:31 PM

I have been talking up #Orpiment's role as a pigment throughout art history today, and I really think it deserves your vote in the #MinCup26!

But also, since I've been searching for art containing orpiment, I've found a lot of recent carvings & that seems unwise. Carving means handling & makes dust

This image shows a bright yellow orpiment rock with the text "Do Not Lick". There is also a red circle with a slash across it with a cartoon of a face licking the rock. There is a warning symbol yellow triangle outlined in black with inset exclamation mark and text, highlighted in yellow reading "Orpiment contains arsenic sulphide!"

@minouette.bsky.social Sep 5, 2026, 10:09 PM

Vote #Orpiment for Francisco de Goya, who used orpiment the metallic highlights of the decorations worn by The Duke of Wellington in this portrait from 1812-14.

#MinCup26 #arthist #scicomm #pigments

Francisco de Goya (1746-1828), The Duke of Wellington (1812-14), oil on mahogany, 64.3 x 52.4 cm, The National Gallery (Bought with aid from the Wolfson Foundation and a special Exchequer grant, 1961), London. Courtesy of and © The National Gallery, London. via

https://eclecticlight.co/2018/03/15/pigment-arsenic-orpiment-and-realgar/

The Duke faces left but looks over his shoulder at the viewer. He is in his red coat, with sash and many medals, against a brown background.

@bkania.bsky.social Sep 5, 2026, 9:00 PM

Ok, this post right here got me to vote for your #Orpiment #MinCup26
"Cage fight" 😂

@ntumanovxray.bsky.social Sep 5, 2026, 8:40 PM

My vote today goes to do-not-lick #Orpiment that remind me about strange sense of humor of mineralogists.
Heard about "healing crystals"? Something that starts from "pharma" definitely healing, right? Like pharmacoalumite, pharmacolite, pharmacosiderite or pharmazincite? All of them contain arsenic

@mikamckinnon.bsky.social Sep 5, 2026, 8:31 PM

Poor lil #Orpiment is trailing so badly. I shortchanged the art conservation challenges of a prized pigment with a vendetta against other paints because I really thought it’d keep going in #MinCup26.

But like… paint battles! Who isn’t instantly intrigued by the geology of paint battles?!

@minouette.bsky.social Sep 5, 2026, 8:07 PM

Vote #Orpiment for its role in global art history! #MinCup26 #arthist

Consider this personification of wisdom from Kashmir or western Tibet:

Fragmentary Leaf from an Ashtasahasrika Prajnaparamita Sutra
Artist: Unidentified Artist, Kashmiri
Date: 12th century
Culture: Kashmir or western Tibet
Medium: Gold, lapis lazuli, cinnabar, indigo, and orpiment pigments and black ink on paper
Dimensions: Image: 8 1/16 × 6 1/2 in. (20.5 × 16.5 cm)
Classification: Paintings
Credit Line: Gift of Chino Franco Roncoroni, in celebration of the Museum’s 150th Anniversary, 2020
Object Number: 2020.74.2
Curatorial Department: Asian Art, The Met

"This painting depicts the personification of the wisdom text Prajnaparamita. She is represented in six-armed form, the central hands are held over the heart in a variation of the dharmacakramudra, whilst her upper hands display the sacred book (pustaka) and the thunderbolt scepter (vajra), whilst her lower hands hold a rosary (mala) and gesture boon granting. She wears golden jewelry on her body and a tripartite diadem adorns herhead, which is framed by a red halo. A girdle, seemingly of strings of pearls, secures her waistcloth, beautifully decorated with large red rosettes in blue hexagonal frames. Slender ribbons fly through the air, one supporting a blue lotus bloom and stem. She is seated in a mediation posture, enthroned on a golden lotus and she is encircled in a rainbow colored nimbus. Particularly noteworthy is the tonal modelling of the bodily forms, heightened with finely controlled orange-red lines. The swelling breasts and constricted waist are hallmarks of the Kashmir style."

Mineral Cup & Ore Cup@mineralcup.bsky.socialSep 5, 2026, 12:00 AM

#MinCup26 Round 1 Match 5 It's a fiery match of vibrant red #Cuprite and just as saturated orange #Orpiment battle for your votes! VOTE: www.mineralcup.org/2026/vote-re... RESULTS: www.mineralcup.org/2026/vote-re...

Split photo of deep red, chunky cuprite crystals, clear and vibrant and shiny like pomegranate seeds and orpiment forming many round puffs of intensely orange spikes radiating out like sea urchin spines.

@minouette.bsky.social Sep 5, 2026, 7:58 PM

Vote #Orpiment for the 17th century Dutch masters who subjected themselves to foul smelling toxic fumes so their paintings could glow! #MinCup26

This '“Festoon with Flowers and Fruit” (1660s) is an oil painting by Jan Davidsz. de Heem which contains orpiment.
#artHist #minerals #scicomm

Jan Davidsz. de Heem, 'Festoon with Flowers and Fruits' 1670. "This painting features at least four Semper Augustus tulips. These flowers were considered extremely valuable at the time this paintings commission." The bouquet also features morning glory, carnation, purple grapes and red apples and is dramatically lit on a black background. Contains orpiment pigment. Via Wikipedia.

Mineral Cup & Ore Cup@mineralcup.bsky.socialSep 5, 2026, 12:00 AM

@minouette.bsky.social Sep 5, 2026, 7:45 PM

Vote for #Orpiment for illuminated manuscripts!

I'd like to invite the medievalists to spare 30 seconds of their time to vote in our yearly battle of the minerals to ensure this important pigment through the centuries doesn't lose out in the first round!

#MinCup26 #artHist #medieval
#scicomm

The Pabenham-Clifford Hours

England,
c. 1315-1320
MS 242

"Folio 2 v
Annunciation with John de Pabenham and Joan Clifford kneeling in the lower margin (Hours of the Virgin)

Underdrawing for the draperies is visible in the infrared image, as well as through the semi-transparent paint used in the Virgin’s pink mantle. This garment was painted with a mixture of an insect-based red dye, lead white and gypsum (hotspot 1), while Gabriel’s dark pink tunic contains a red dye mixed with chalk (hotspot 2). Gabriel’s blue-grey wings contain azurite blue and small quantities of an organic red, as can be seen under magnification (hotspot 4). The tooled gold leaf in the background was additionally decorated by painting a pattern of spirals with an arsenic sulphide yellow pigment, likely orpiment (hotspot 5)."

Via Orpiment Illuminated by the FitzWilliam Museum, Cambridge

https://qi.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/illuminated/lab/overview-of-artists-materials/orpiment/type/material

@minouette.bsky.social Sep 5, 2026, 7:31 PM

Vote #Orpiment in Round 1 Match 5 of the #MinCup26!

The storied pigment is found in the great Hokusai’s woodblock prints, and those of other masters of the Edo era. Cuprite could never.

#scicomm #pigment #arthistory #printmaking #minerals

From: Natural and synthetic arsenic sulfide pigments in Japanese woodblock prints of the late Edo period

Left: Ono Waterfall on the Kisokaidō (Kisokaidō Ono no bakufu), from the series A Tour of Waterfalls in Various Provinces (Shokoku taki meguri) by Katsushika Hokusai. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 14 3/4 × 10 1/4 in., Accession Number JP2925. Henry L. Phillips Collection, Bequest of Henry L. Phillips, 1939. This print is part of Set A. (right) Ono Waterfall on the Kisokaidō (Kisokaidō Ono no bakufu), from the series A Tour of Waterfalls in various provinces (Shokoku taki meguri) by Katsushika Hokusai. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 14 7/8 × 10 5/16 in., Accession Number JP1082. This print is part of Set B

These beautiful landscape woodblock prints contain orpiment.

@minouette.bsky.social Sep 5, 2026, 7:16 PM

I know I am biased here, but most of the campaigning I am seeing (even if I myself am a significant portion thereof) seems to be for #Orpiment so I am surprised it’s fallen behind.

Vote poisonous pigment! Vote Orpiment! #MinCup26

@clairecopperman.bsky.social Sep 5, 2026, 7:14 PM

Team #Orpiment here. Who can imagine a world without the artwork created with the fluffy orange mineral?

@clairecopperman.bsky.social Sep 5, 2026, 7:13 PM

C'mon, people: vote #Orpiment for its colour, its fluffiness and its role in art. But don't lick it.
#MinCup26
www.bbc.co.uk/culture/arti...

@catwithgeologists.bsky.social Sep 5, 2026, 5:27 PM

Today, it’s #cuprite versus #orpiment in the #MinCup26. Easy! The #mineral orpiment contains arsenic, & that is very toxic to #cats. But cuprite is a #copper oxide that often forms on #bronze statues, & bronze statues exist primarily to pay homage to cats.
#DoesItCat ? YES
#geologywithcats

@mineralcollection.bsky.social Sep 5, 2026, 5:04 PM

www.mineralcollection.eu/product/2410...
Hutchinsonite with orpiment from the Quiruvilca mine, Quiruvilca District, Peru
These minerals are toxic, so keep them in a closed box
20 mm x 19 mm
15 gram incl. box
€ 20
#hutchinsonite #orpiment #sulfosalts #thumbnailminerals #micromounts #minerals

@eos.org Sep 5, 2026, 4:37 PM

Right?! #orpiment #MinCup26
colourlex.com/project/orpi...