Iridescent Glazed Turquoise

Latin Īris, rainbow — adjectival suffix -escent, named for the Greek goddess of the rainbow. As a color modifier, iridescent implies a saturated-and-multi-spectrum-shifting quality, the bright color of peacock-feather-and-soap-bubble structurally-colored-and-thin-film optical-interference patterns. Sits at the bright-and-shifting end of the grid, parallel to prismatic and holographic in usage.

Old English glæs, glass. As a color modifier, glazed implies a fired-pottery-glaze-and-glass-coating quality, the visual register of Stoke-on-Trent-and-Italian-Maiolica-glazed hand-applied-and-fired ceramic-and-pottery-and-tile-glaze Stoke-on-Trent-and-Italian-Maiolica glazed-pottery surfaces under Stoke-on-Trent-and-Italian-Maiolica hand-glazed pottery-and-tile workshop-light. Sits at the modifier-and-texture end of the grid, parallel to gloss and enameled 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.