I stumbled upon your blog and am blown away by your work. Beautiful! I am also a knitter, and it’s always fun to see what others are working on.

The reason I am writing, though, is to ask you a couple questions about the information you have up on your site about pigments:

http://www.jcsparks.com/painted/index2.html

I hope you won’t think this is totally bizarre, but I am writing a mystery novel that is set in modern day New England. Several of the characters, including the murderer, are painters. I am researching artistic chemicals and pigments, looking for something extremely poisonous, that could make sense in the story as the murder method. I have read about the French light cobalt violet (cobaltous oxide arsenate) that you list in your historical guide. Is this paint available to artists now? If so, it might be just the right poison for the story.

Many thanks for any help you can give, and best of luck with your work!