Bold Juno Ruby

Old English beald, brave, courageous — a quality word that crossed over to color in the late seventeenth century. Bold describes a color that asserts itself: high saturation combined with mid lightness, where the hue presents itself without compromise. Sits at the center of the bold-bucket grid, near strong and rich. Closer to a presence word than a pigment word.

Latin Juno, Roman-queen-of-gods. As a color modifier, juno implies an asteroid-and-queen-of-gods quality, the visual register of Juno-asteroid-and-Roman-queen hand-asteroid-and-queen-of-gods Juno-asteroid-and-Roman-queen-and-Jupiter-mission juno-and-asteroid-and-queen-of-gods surfaces under Juno-asteroid-and-Roman-queen-and-Jupiter-mission asteroid-belt-and-Roman-temple ancient-pantheon-light. Sits at the modifier-and-cosmic end of the grid, parallel to ceres and vesta in usage.

From the Latin ruber — simply, red. The gemstone is a chromium-tinged corundum, harder than anything in nature except diamond, and so saturated that a fine Burmese pigeon's blood ruby at auction outpaces a comparable diamond by weight. The color borrows the gem's confidence: a clear, glassy red without the brown of garnet or the blue of crimson.