As a primary colour, blue represents coolness and clarity - calm, professional and sober. It can vary from a fresh, shimmering lake blue to a jewel-toned ocean; from a light, midday sky to a dark, starry night.
As a primary colour, blue opposes orange on the colour wheel; the meeting point between the other two primary colours, red and yellow.
Originating from the ancient Indian Vedic texts, the chakras are used today in Vedic practices, such as yoga. Blue symbolizes the throat chakra ‘Vishuddha.’ Located at the throat, the blue chakra visually represents our ability to speak the truth and communicate ourselves to the world. It is associated with duty, trust, logic and intelligence.
The Egyptians used lapis and turquoise semi-precious stones in their jewellery. They mixed their own blue dye, Egyptian blue or calcium copper silicate, which they used on canvas, stone, wood and papyrus.
In early modern Europe, royal blue was an expensive dye made of woad, a flowering mediterranean plant and only used by the very wealthy and the nobility.
The arrival of indigo dye in the sixteenth Century imported from Asia eventually replaced woad and became commonly used as a clothing dye, as it was rich-looking and long-lasting.
Denim, a cotton twill, was first dyed with indigo in seventeenth Century Genoa, Italy. Levi Strauss patented the use of metal rivets and used the sturdy, washable indigo-dyed fabric to create the first denim jeans in San Francisco, USA, in the 1850s. The popularity of denim has kept blue in fashion throughout the modern era.
The deep blue used in the uniform of marines is now known universally as navy blue and is a core colour of naval uniforms and professional attire. The colour connotes seriousness, professionalism and sobriety.
Many classical paintings of the Virgin Mary depict her clothing in ultramarine blue (sometimes painted over indigo), such as the seventeenth Century's Sassoferrato's 'The Virgin in Prayer'.
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