A wide variety of polychromed medieval furnishings is to be found in English churches. The artists' techniques have received insufficient study. Commonly found pigments are listed, together with some of the ways in which they were used. Medieval painters exploited the different characteristics of their materials, for example the opacity or translucency of pigments, in order to obtain a rich range of effects. Conservators must be aware of the intended appearance of aged and damaged surfaces. Early recipes exist in manuscripts which might be collated with surviving works of art. Most of the objects described here date from the 15th or early 16th centuries.