Engraved Ophiuchus Turquoise

Old French engraver, to dig in — past-participle of engrave. As a color modifier, engraved implies a clear-and-precisely-cut quality, the crisp color of Albrecht-Dürer-and-Hogarth hand-pulled engraving-print fine-line incised-image. Sits at the crisp-and-incised end of the grid, parallel to etched and inscribed in usage.

Greek Ὀφιοῦχος, serpent-bearer. As a color modifier, ophiuchus implies a serpent-bearer-and-thirteenth-sign-and-Asclepius quality, the visual register of Hellenic-Ophiuchus-and-Asclepius-serpent-bearer hand-serpent-bearer-and-thirteenth-sign-and-Asclepius Hellenic-Ophiuchus-and-Asclepius-serpent-bearer-and-Rod-of-Asclepius ophiuchus-and-serpent-bearer-and-thirteenth-sign surfaces under Hellenic-Ophiuchus-and-Asclepius-serpent-bearer-and-Rod-of-Asclepius autumn-and-November-and-December serpent-bearer-light. Sits at the modifier-and-zodiac end of the grid, parallel to scorpio and sagittarius in usage.

The hydrated copper-aluminum phosphate mined in Persia and the American Southwest for thousands of years — the firuze of Iran, the chalchihuitl of Mesoamerica, the heart of Pueblo and Navajo silverwork. The color refers to a fine Sleeping Beauty turquoise from Arizona: a saturated, slightly green-shifted blue with the slight matrix of host-rock veining. Brighter than persian, lighter than cerulean.