Paint Statue that changes color with weather/airpressure

[Christof999]

Hello all,

I Found an old keepsake when I recently moved that I bought in Italy 15 years ago. It was a small statue of an owl that changed color when the weather was changing. It would be pink, blue most often or sometimes green. That statue itself didn't change, but rather it was the paint on it. The paint was kinda thick and sparkling. These statues were everywhere when I was there. Mine eventually wore out, and no longer changes but I got a good 3 years out of it. I think it is either moisture or air pressure that it responds to.

Now I am working on some meteorology courses and I really wanted to find out when I could get another statue, but even more, I really wanted to find out how the heck I could make this or buy this paint myself, so I could paint my own statue. I thought a simple web search would turn up lots of buying links and at least a few DIY guides for this stuff, but I found almost nothing. The only thing I found was a couple of links, one selling a religious "barometer statue". The statue had the same paint on it. So far this is the only trace of this stuffs existence I could find. Here are the links. The second one shows a statue someone ironically got in Rome.

http://www.littleflowersfamilypress.com/SHOP/chaltars03.htm
http://www.bdline.net/aftershow/2008/08/03/the-ever-changing-she-wolf/

Could someone please tell me what type of paint this is, what it might be called, where I might be able to buy the paint, or to buy the chemicals to make it? (I have a lot of wet chem experience, and a buying account with a distributor, so no need to worry about self injury) If anyone could even tell me where to get more of these statues or what they are called it would be a bit of a help.

Any information is greatly appreciated.
Cheers
Christof

 

[DaveC426913]

Heh, yeah I remember having one of these. Never know what powered it though.

 

[rcgldr]

My guess is Cobalt Chloride, which is blue when dry, pink when wet, (but not green?).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobalt(II)_chloride

Note that it's somewhat toxic and a skin irritant.

http://www.jtbaker.com/msds/englishhtml/C4928.htm

 

[Borek]

Cobalt chloride it is.

I had a postcard with a cloud painted with it, it was changing its color between blue and pink. There was even a poem written in Czech that stated something like "Color of cloud blue - wheteher is good, when it changes color - it can rain any time".

Czech version (as I remember it - I don't speak Czech) on request