Creative Purple

Purple is a secondary colour. It is the combination of primary red and blue. I like teaching kids how to mix colour at bathtime using food colouring. Just a couple of drops of each and it won't send them to bed looking like a punk. Just breaks up the boredum of bed times routine .

Purple is a colour you find a lot in nature. Be it a spud or a stunning jacaranda tree. It traditionally symbolises royalty , nobility and spirituality. It's the colour of magic. It the colour associated with creativity so its not suprising that its an artists favourite and one of mine.

Purple is the colour of good judgement. Its confident and ambitious. The colour of purpose.  The perfect colour for meditation as it combines the hot red and cool blue opposites to a colour that calms over activity or lifts you up from depression.

Purple used to be a very expensive dye to produce. 4000 years ago in the ancient city of Tyre, the glands of a spiral Murex shell were sought as they contained a rich purple dye. These shells were found deep in the Mediteranean so only the divers that could hold their breath long enough to retrieve them did. 12,000 shells were needed to dye cloth for one toga so no wonder it was a colour associated with royalty and wealth. Later lichen was used but again , it took the same weight in lichen to cloth to dye it. The lichen was combined with urine ( Yukko!) to draw the dye out of it over a matter of weeks. Nice.!

Traditionally the colour of mourning in Thailand. Purple is worn by priests during lent to symbolise spirituality and restraint. It was queen Cleopatras favourite colour. It's used as a symbolic colour today for example International Womens Day( last week) or Epilepsy day. The U.S Military award  the wounded in battle with the purple heart medal.

Now you don't have to be royalty to enjoy the magic of purple. You just need to look around you and stop to absorb how great it makes you feel ! Forget the smelling the roses, lavender will calm you in both colour and scent!