Engraved Leo 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.

Latin leo, lion-of-the-zodiac. As a color modifier, leo implies a lion-and-fire-sign-and-Sun-ruled-fixed-fire quality, the visual register of Hellenic-Leo-and-Nemean-lion hand-lion-and-fire-sign-and-Sun-ruled-fixed-fire Hellenic-Leo-and-Nemean-lion-and-Hercules-twelve-labors leo-and-lion-and-fire-sign surfaces under Hellenic-Leo-and-Nemean-lion-and-Hercules-twelve-labors high-summer-and-July-and-August fixed-fire-sign-light. Sits at the modifier-and-zodiac end of the grid, parallel to cancer and virgo 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.