Searing Quell Turquoise

Old English sēarian, to wither — present-participle of sear. As a color modifier, searing implies a saturated-and-burning-touch-hot quality, the bright color of cast-iron-griddle high-heat surface-emission. Sits at the bright-and-warm end of the grid, parallel to scorching and blazing in usage.

Old English cwellan, to-kill-or-suppress. As a color modifier, quell implies a stilled-and-suppressed-and-pacified quality, the visual register of vesper-bell-and-curfew-quell hand-stilled-and-pacified-and-suppressed vesper-bell-and-curfew-bell-and-night-watch quelled-and-stilled-and-suppressed surfaces under vesper-bell-and-curfew-bell-and-night-watch hush-and-stillness-and-quiet bell-tower-and-monastery light. Sits at the modifier-and-mood end of the grid, parallel to hush and lull 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.