This book recounts the colorful history of cochineal, a legendary red dye that was once one of the world's most precious commodities. Treasured by the ancient Mexicans, cochineal was sold in the great Aztec marketplaces, where it attracted the attention of the Spanish conquistadors in 1519. Shipped to Europe, the dye created a sensation, producing the brightest, strongest red the world had ever seen. Soon Spain's cochineal monopoly was worth a fortune....

"The book Charles Darwin used to identify colors in nature during his HMS Beagle voyage"--

Color explores how we can read this marvelous language of light, heightening our awareness of the deep sense of beauty around and within us, within each living being, nurturing our imagination. In five chapters, Color takes the reader through birth, darkness and light, our auras, chakras, and the rainbow, to the afterlife. It explores how artists use color, how we have "coded" colors for healing, alchemy, and various other aspects of our culture,...

An indispensable guide to the colors and combinations of contemporary Japanese design-by one of Japan's leading colorists! Color consultant Teruko Sakurai finds inspiration everywhere, in the foods, landscapes and everyday objects of her native land. Flipping through the pages of this book is like taking a tour through modern Japan. The tones, hues and palettes will dazzle and inspire you. Over 3,300 different color combinations are, presented in...

"There is a lack of a systematic understanding of Ancestral Pueblo color choices over time and this manuscript aims at compiling a more complete picture of the geographic and temporal distribution of color use in the Ancestral Pueblo world. The manuscript consists of two parts. The first examines color itself, through the science of color perception to the social significance of color in the human experience. It includes ethnographic and archaeological...