Settled Pile Verdigris

The past participle of settle, to come to rest — used as a color modifier since the seventeenth century for hues that read as stabilized after a process. Settled green, settled brown: moderate saturation combined with optical permanence. Sits at the crisp-bucket alongside steady and composed.

Old French pile, raised-cut-thread. As a color modifier, pile implies a raised-cut-thread-and-velvet quality, the visual register of velvet-and-corduroy-and-pile-rug hand-cut-and-raised-thread velvet-and-corduroy-and-pile-rug-textile surfaces under velvet-and-corduroy-and-pile-rug textile workshop-light. Sits at the modifier-and-texture end of the grid, parallel to plush and nap 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.