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Jake at Access Space.

It's complete and on the wall at Access Space.

#660066, is a shade of purple called “Effete”. There is only one reference on the web to this, so believe it at your own discretion: http://weblog.delacour.net/archives/2002/07/questions_asked_and_answered.php

Effete - adj.

 1. Depleted of vitality, force, or effectiveness; exhausted: the final, effete period of the baroque style.
 2. Marked by self-indulgence, triviality, or decadence: an effete group of self-professed intellectuals.
 3. Overrefined; effeminate.

Historically, embroidery has not been considered a particulary macho pursuit, but even people who enjoyed a wide variety of beers have, in the past, been labelled as “effete” - see, for instance, this conversation between Michael Jackson and Charlie Papazian in All About Beer Magazine's 100th issue:

“CP: I see my work and involvement in making people feel comfortable that beer and appreciating beer in this context is accessible. Before Michael and I were doing our thing, beer was inaccessible.

MJ: There was an element that you weren't allowed to appreciate it. If you started to talk about different beers, different tastes, you were being effete.

CP: That was maybe a little bit left over from the wine.

MJ: Fritz [Maytag] talks about beer being the drink of the common man, and I don't agree with that, I think beer is the drink of every man, which is not quite the same thing. It was never the case that beer was purely a blue-collar drink and wine was purely an upscale drink, but in so far as those stereotypes exist, I think the two drinks have met in the middle; there's been a democratization of drink. People needed to be given permission to enjoy beer…” http://www.allaboutbeer.com/features/legends3.html

Do people need to be given permission to enjoy embroidery, and if so, by whom? Or is it simply a matter of context? Heavy rock fans have embroidered their denim jackets for decades with band names like Metallica, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple, and most fans are young men.(Commercial examples: http://images.google.co.uk/images?gbv=2&svnum=10&hl=en&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=1&ct=result&cd=1&q=zoso+jimmy+page&spell=1)

We can now, thankfully, enjoy even purple beer without fear of being labelled as effete. A favourite purple beer is Abita Purple Haze http://www.bostongeek.com/2006/03/30/abita-purple-haze/ Sadly, it is currently unavailable in the UK so a self-indulgent and expensive (read decadent) trip to the States is required, where you will eat a large amount of processed (overrefined) food, and after which you will no doubt feel depleted of vitality (jet-lag/hangover).

As far as this embroiderer knows there are as yet no Open Source recipes for purple beer, but Open Source recipes for beers of other colours (mostly, one would have thought, beginning with the html hexidecimal letters FF) can be found here: http://www.freebeer.org/blog/

Open Source is often described as “free as in free speech, not as in free beer”.

You may come to the conclusion that this entry is marked by triviality and self-indulgence so can indeed be described as “effete” - you have the right to “free speech” (depending on where you live). And now, with link above, you have the possibility of “free beer”.

This purple is also very close to the purple colour on the 'gay Rainbow flag'; it symbolises the Transgender Community.

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