Mauve

The earliest archaeological evidence for the origins of purple dyes points to the Minoan civilization in Crete, about 1900 B.C. The ancient land of Canaan (its corresponding Greek name was Phoenicia, which means ?land of the purple?) was the center of the ancient purple dye industry.

?Tyrian Purple,? the purple dye of the ancients mentioned in texts dating back to about 1600 B.C., was produced from the mucus of the hypobranchial gland of various species of marine mollusks, notably Murex. It took some 12,000 shellfish to extract 1.5 grams of the pure dye.



My new colour is made from iris flowers, all 120kgs of them.

This ambivalence is characteristic. Mauve is the color of suspended choice and uncertain boundaries.


Mauve is the past; the future is mauve.*