What's new about placid blue?

It's not a new color at all. It has always been with us. It is what we want to see when we get up in the morning and look out the window at the sky.

It is one of the top ten Womens's Pantone Colors for Spring 2014, which makes it noteworthy.

See the Pantone fashion color report for Spring here

Placid Blue is a soft pastel that is a wonderful compliment to the strong and bold Dazzling Blue. Pantone describes it as a picture perfect, tranquil and reassuring sky that induces a sense of peaceful calmness.

     Placid blue bracelet upcycled from artist palette


What is great about placid blue:
It is calming.
It works well as a background color.
It harmonizes with soft pastel greens and violets.
It is a great solution for "what to wear with jeans"

Here's a recipe for placid blue, according to Bustanoby's Color Manual, copyright 1939:
It was called Forget-Me-Not Blue

"Slightly neutral tint of blue, resembling the delicate blue flowers, with yellow centers, of this perennial herb, which grows in wet or damp places in the United States, Europe and Asia."

16 parts Zinc White
2 parts Cobalt Blue

Forget Me Not flowers

1 part yellow Ochre
Trace of Burnt Umber

From this list of ingredients I can tell you that placid blue is mostly white with a little blue, and the yellow ochre and burnt umber would act to tone it down. So it is a tint of blue with a bit of its complement added, making it a gorgeous gray blue.

What will you wear with placid blue this season?

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Parts of Art

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