Sterile Hemp Verdigris

Latin sterilis, barren / not-fertile — sharing root with Greek steiros (barren). As a color modifier, sterile implies a clear-and-medical-clean-and-stripped quality, the crisp color of operating-theater surgical-environment white-and-stainless-steel surfaces. Sits at the crisp-and-clean end of the grid, parallel to sanitary and hygienic in usage.

Old English henep, hemp-plant. As a color modifier, hemp implies a coarse-bast-fiber quality, the visual register of Russian-and-Italian-and-Far-East-hemp hand-retted-and-spun-hemp-fiber bast-fiber rope-and-canvas-and-cordage hemp-textile surfaces under hand-retted-and-spun-hemp working light. Sits at the modifier-and-texture end of the grid, parallel to cord and twine in usage.

The basic copper carbonate that forms on weathered copper and bronze — the pigment scraped from oxidized metal and used in Renaissance painting before being supplanted by more stable greens. The color refers to a thick verdigris on aged copper roofing or the Statue of Liberty's surface: a soft, slightly muted blue-green with the powdery finish of mineral oxide. Cooler than patina, warmer than seafoam, with the archaeological weight of a mineral made by time.