Violet

On Thursday 22nd April we thought about violet. The first thing we discussed about violet was – what colour is it? As with indigo, this was another disputed shade with some thinking it was nearer pink, others that it was a bright and vibrant purple and yet others hovering between the two. We looked at the flowers called Violets in the hope of finding a definitive answer but found that even these could come in different shades, though they were definitely more purple than pink.

Lots of people in the group had violet (purple) as their favourite colour and even more liked purple and pink or purple and blue. Heath thought violet helped him to go to sleep and made him think of night-time meditations while Rosie thought that too much of it would make her feel gloomy and it would be a bit much.

There are lots of purple foods and the foods we had at the session included: grapes, aubergines, red onions, beetroot, plums, prunes, blueberries, blackberries, red cabbage, pomegranate and purple-sprouting broccoli.

Freya did a puppet show for us with home-made puppets showing us a story of how the sun people and rain people learned to work together by making a rainbow.

Isaac had made a beautifully-coloured American pelican, with gorgeous blues, reds and purples.

Daragh had brought in Mr Cheeky, a rare purple Mr Man which was made in response to a little girl's idea in a competition. He had also brought in Spiro the Dragon who is also mainly pruple.

Hugh had brought in Rockstar Penguin from Club Penguin and a Bugs Bunny dressed as a King or Emperor with a sumptuous purple cloak. This brought up the idea of purple being a royal colour and it was noted that this had also come up during the visit to Hampton Court that some of the children had been on the day before.

Amy and Mandy had done a survey of what people in general outside of the group thought of violet/purple and death came up a lot – it was a colour thought acceptable to wear at funerals. It was also associated with sadness and with the sweets Parma Violets. When Amy suggested to one man that maybe purple was a royal colour, he disagreed and thought gold was more of a royal colour.

Harrison had brought in a picture he'd made using a purple chocolate wrapper and spelling out 'I love you'. He'd also brought a 'spy pen' which could write invisible writing and then make it visible by using a small ultra-violet light on the end of the pen. We noted that humans can't actually see ultra-violet light, only its reflection against other things, and that it is the next colour along in the spectrum after violet.

Lois had done a beautiful and colourful painting of a rainbow with herself and Jonathan sheltering beneath it, and she and Jonathan had also done some lovely night cityscapes with rich violet skies and silhouettes of buildings in the foreground.

Charlie had also done a picture of rain and a rainbow with some writing about violet, as follows:

Violet by Charlie

Violet is the highest colour in the visible spectrum – it is the seventh colour of the rainbow – it is the colour on the inner edge. Violet is sometimes confused with purple. The name of the colour comes from the violet, which is a small flower grown in most parts of the world. In colour therapy, it signifies the Crown Chakra. Charlie likes violet because it is like the colour purple. Charlie likes wild violet flowers and Parma Violet sweets.