In this video, I create a dye from the cochineal insect to paint art on three different materials. Cochineal is a parasitic scale insect that produces a crimson dye, significant to Aztec and Mayan ...

Have you ever heard of cochineal? And I am not referring to the upscale restaurant in Marfa, Texas, but to the small, scale insect native to our area. This insect lives on nopal, prickly pear, Opuntia ...

Tuna found in the desert? OK, fair enough: that’s tuna, as in the Spanish for prickly pear, the fruit of the nopal. Ken Factor and I have spotted an ancient cactus tree growing close to the veranda ...

Hernán Cortés, the Spanish conquistador, is best known for leading the expedition that brought about the downfall of the Aztec Empire in 1521. While his military prowess is often the focus of his ...

Catalog of an exhibition held at the Museum of International Folk Art, Santa Fe from May 17, 2015-September 13, 2015. Three reds : cochineal, hematite, and cinnabar in the pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican ...

The cochineal is a tiny insect deeply rooted in the history of Oaxaca, Mexico. Female cochineals spend most of their lives with their heads buried in juicy cactus pads, eating and growing. After ...

The guts of an insect called the cochineal contain a traditional source of bright red dye -- a dye which has now become a booming industry because of a growing preference for juices and yogurts that ...

Truly vibrant red was elusive for many years: until a mysterious dye was discovered in Mexico. Devon Van Houten Maldonado reveals how a crushed bug became a sign of wealth and status. Although scarlet ...