Ironed Pillar Turquoise

Old English īsern, iron — past-participle of iron. As a color modifier, ironed implies a clear-and-smoothed-and-pressed quality, the crisp color of Mid-Century-Modern freshly-ironed-shirt-and-trouser dress-attire textile finish. Sits at the crisp-and-finished end of the grid, parallel to pressed and starched in usage.

Latin pīla, pillar. As a color modifier, pillar implies a vertical-load-bearing-and-monumental quality, the visual register of Roman-and-Greek-and-Egyptian-Pillar hand-cut Doric-and-Ionic-and-Corinthian-Egyptian column-and-pillar monumental-architecture surfaces under classical-pillar monumental-architecture light. Sits at the modifier-and-architecture end of the grid, parallel to column and plinth 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.