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Olive Green


Olive green:
Neutral brownish green, similar to unripe olives, the fruit of the olive tree, an evergreen with leathery leaves and small whitish flowers, a native of western Asia, cultivated since ancient times.
If you were to mix this as a paint color, here's a recipe:
8 parts Zinc White
3 parts Cobalt Blue
2 parts Cadmium Yellow Medium
1 part Burnt Umber

What makes it so special? Olive green is a muted green. As you can see from the recipe, it is made from white, blue yellow and brown. We know from the color wheel exercise that blue plus yellow makes green, and that if you add white it becomes a beautiful delightful tint of green. But to mute it, to make it more earthy and natural, and to truly earn the name of OLIVE, it needs more. It needs to reach across the color wheel and grab some red. The recipe calls for burnt umber, and if you are familiar with paint names you know that burnt umber has a reddish cast. Not as much as burnt sienna, but enough to mute down the green and give you OLIVE.
This bracelet would be a great accessory for neutrals, bronzes, coppers, or any of the autumnal palette greens. 

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