Pressed Slick Turquoise

Latin pressāre, to press — past-participle of press. As a color modifier, pressed implies a clear-and-smoothed-and-flattened quality, the crisp color of Mid-Century-Modern freshly-pressed-shirt-and-trouser ironed-textile finish. Sits at the crisp-and-finished end of the grid, parallel to ironed and starched in usage.

Old Norse slíkr, slick / smooth. As a color modifier, slick implies a wet-and-glossy quality, the visual register of oil-and-water-slick wet-and-glossy oil-and-water-slick reflective-surface slick-and-glossy-and-reflective surfaces under wet-oil-and-water-slick reflective-light. Sits at the modifier-and-texture end of the grid, parallel to sleek and gloss 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.