Tracer Mull Turquoise

Old French tracier, to trace — sharing root with English trace and track. As a color modifier, tracer implies a saturated-and-streak-of-light quality, the bright color of military-tracer-round and long-exposure-photography light-trail visual streak. Sits at the bright-and-active end of the grid, parallel to flashing and streaking in usage.

Middle English mullen, to-grind-or-ponder. As a color modifier, mull implies a slow-pondered-and-warmed-and-spiced quality, the visual register of mulled-wine-and-mulled-thought hand-slow-pondered-and-warmed-and-spiced mulled-wine-and-mulled-cider-and-mulled-thought mulled-and-slow-pondered-and-warmed-and-spiced surfaces under mulled-wine-and-mulled-cider-and-mulled-thought clove-and-cinnamon-and-orange-peel hearth-side-winter-light. Sits at the modifier-and-mood end of the grid, parallel to muse and brood 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.