When iron meets oxygen and water a colorful process takes place that leaves the vibrant red-orange color we know as rust. Rust is the corrosion of iron caused by a chemical reaction that take place when iron is exposed to oxygen in the presence of water or moisture. The chemical reaction creates red oxides, the familiar red-orange.

Iron oxides were used in the paints of the earliest prehistoric art. It is also used in ceramics, and synthetic versions of the pigments are widely used in cosmetics.

Rust can be a humbling reminder of the passing of time and the fragility of humans and their creations, like seeing rust appear on the edges of your first bike or car, or returning to a building or home to find it has taken on a new personality, one faded from the passing years, but it also can be inspiring with its rich color that changes and compliments the colors that surround it.

Let's have a look at some rusty palettes, colors and patterns pulled from incredible photos and the COLOURlovers library.

Photo by scottwills

As any cool kid will tell you, the most important palette you can wear is on your sneakers. Luckily, most of the shoe industry is right on track with the newly developing long-tail, Limited Edition, Artist Series, Custom Designed and DIY markets, which includes any color lover who has the perfect palette to show off on the streets.

Custom Sneakers

Most of the major brands have jumped on the DIY sneaker design track, but not all the sites are the same. While I didn't go through every shoe site, here are a few that even if you are not about to buy a new pair of shoes, will at least keep you busy and distracted as you go through all the colorway options available.

Converse

Link

• Shoes: 12 styles
• Materials: Canvas, Suede, Leather
• Colors: 30 colors and patterns
• Delivery Time: 2 to 4 weeks

There is no better time to show off color than during the summer, and many designers are doing just that. Taking the cue of the summer season, designers are creating some very inspiring color palettes for us to enjoy. Here are a few of the more dramatic and bold color palettes that, if worn, will expose any true color lover.

Womans

Insight

Insight's personality encompasses a lifestyle that surrounds everything surf, skate, art, music, fashion and popular culture. They just want to design clothing that they themselves would want to wear. It isn't high science, however they do have good ideas and good ideas can be priceless and that is one (of the many) secrets behind the labels success.

Insight

Shoshanna

Classic, fun, feminine, and sexy are what Shoshanna is all about in creating her signature swimwear and apparel. So no matter what season it may be, dive into something new.

Tattoo artists face a unique set of challenges when it comes to color. A canvas such as skin, each with its own unique tone, will seemingly change the appearance of every color used. For the tattoo artist, taking into consideration and working with the natural tones of each individuals skin creates a unique challenge. However, it doesn't deter them from creating inspiring color palettes that are even more stunning when complimented by the clients natural tones.

Header image by Adventure Addict

Here is a selection of tattoos, accompanied by a few words by each artist, from the top four artists' galleries (based on a secret algorithm) from tattooartists.org.

Alli MacGregor

I tattoo out of Inspired by Ink in Columbus, Ohio. I like to do neo traditional, big bold color work as well as color realism.

This is a large tattoo on the ribs of a girl from Kansas City. We went with swallows and small flowers to keep the image simple and feminine.

I had a lot of fun with this piece. I tattoo a lot of owls and this piece was a bit different for me.

Alli MacGregor

I started this sleeve at the Dayton Gem City Heart Attack convention. The images depicted are from the movie Princess Mononoke. As you can see we have a lot more to go. I had a lot of fun with this. I am thrilled to be doing this piece because Hayao Miyazaki is one of the most amazing animation directors in the world and his movies display so much beauty.

There is no better time to show off color than during the summer (apologies to those of you in the other hemisphere), and many designers are doing just that. Taking the cue of the summer season, designers are creating some very inspiring color palettes for us to enjoy. Here are a few of the more dramatic and bold color palettes that, if worn, will expose any true color lover.

If you ladies, and adventurous gentlemen, are wondering where I might have come across such a selection of dresses, my search started at NOTCOUTURE, from there I ran into a few online boutiques which can be seen when you click on the image/designer links.

Dress by Wenlan Chia

Twinkle designer Wenlan Chia's collection takes feminine dressing to a new level. Expect whimsical designs with bold patterns and bright colors.

Dress by Emilio Pucci

Emilio Pucci, was an Italian fashion designer and politician. He and his eponymous company are synonymous with geometric prints in a kaleidoscope of colors.

2008 has been a great year for us so far. We reached several milestones like 1,000,000 named colors and 100,000 members and we received some pretty major recognition...

We were honored by the Webby Awards as one of the Top 5 Web Communities for the second year in a row. The Web Visionary Awards gave us the Application, Community and Best of Show awards...

And TIME just named COLOURlovers one of the 50 Best Websites of 2008!

Thank you all for being a part of our community and for helping us grow as one of the best places to share some of your time online. We have more big ideas planned and look forward to ever increasing the amount of color love in the world.

There are many women in the world that will never be caught dead in anything other than a tan or black shoe. As a woman, I understand the importance of such staples in one's collection, but somehow feel my life would be a little less fun without the brightly colored shoes that are in mine. Of course, women's shoes in general have a long history, and they have meant many things to both men and women alike. A shoe can match a bag, complement an ensemble, or make a bold statement all on its own. Here are a few insights into the colors of shoes (and what they sometimes communicate).

Photo by kalandrakas

The red shoe
Depending on who you talk to, a woman who wears red shoes is either brave and fashionable or she is advertising her status as a lady of the night. It's amusing to think there could be such contrasting reactions, but red tends to make a statement in all types of fashion, and shoes are no exception. Many women view red shoes as a symbol of power, much like a feminine version of a men's "power tie". To date, if a woman chooses to wear any brightly colored shoe outside of her basic neutral choices, it tends to be a red shoe.

Photo by PinkMoose

The primary shoe
You don't see a lot of shoes in primary shades on women, and there's a reason -- it takes a very specific type of personality to pull it off. Not unlike the colors themselves, a shoe in a primary shade is attention-grabbing, and unless a woman focuses on collecting clothing to complement such footwear, it's likely shoes of the same hue will sit in the back of the closet. With the recent popularity surge in eighties-inspired fashions, primary colors for the feet have made a bit of a comeback, but who knows how long they will will stick around.

Unless you've been living under a rock for the last twelve years, you have probably seen at least one Pixar film. The famous animation studio seems to be releasing one delightful film after another, consistently producing family-friendly fare that speaks to both children and adults. Any lover of vivid color will find great delight in any of their films, as they tend to be a sensational assault on the senses. Some fans have voiced their feelings about Pixar as the "new voice" of Disney, as they continue to produce beautiful films with what appears as effortless grace.

Of course, things are not always quite what they seem, and a look behind the scenes proves that Pixar has worked quite tirelessly to achieve the success they now enjoy. Pixar's beginning reach all the way back to 1979, when they were founded as The Graphics Group, which was one third of the Computer Division of Lucasfilm. The team worked on the precursor to the programming interface RenderMan, which was called Motion Doctor at that time. The most remarkable quality about this program was that it allowed cel animators to use computer animation with very little formal training.

The team went on to work on several Lucasfilm and projects such as Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Young Sherlock Holmes. In 1986 ownership of the group changed hands, purchased by Steve Jobs shortly after his departure from Apple Computer. After plowing a cool 5 million into the company, he renamed it Pixar, a made-up Spanish verb meaning "to make pixels" or "to make pictures".

Pixar started off as a top-notch computer hardware company whose main product was the Pixar Image Computer, which was intended for government and medical use only. How funny to think that the creative demon that is Pixar now could have spent their days in a very different way! Disney were actually one of the leading buyers for these computers, but as a whole they did not sell well. The future was looking dismal until employee John Lasseter decided to take matters into his own hands by premiering his own short demo animations at a major trade show called SIGGRAPH and met with a positive reception.

Inspiration from the colors of the great impressionists, plus some information about each painting and artist from wikipedia.

For more information about each artist or to see more of their work, just click on any image.

Armand Guillaumin: La Place Valhubert.
		Born in Paris, France, he worked at his uncle's lingerie shop while attending evening drawing lessons. He also worked for a French government railway before studying at the Académie Suisse in 1861. There, he met Paul Cézanne and Camille Pissarro with whom maintained lifelong friendships. While he never achieved the stature of these two, his influence on their work was significant. Cézanne attempted his first etching based on Guillaumin paintings of barges on the River Seine.

Armand Guillaumin: Sunset at Ivry
		Noted for his intense colors, major museums around the world display Guillaumin's art. He is best remembered for his landscapes of Paris, the Creuse département, and the area around Les Adrets-de-l'Estérel near the Mediterraneran coast in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of France. Armand Guillaumin died in 1927 in Orly, Val-de-Marne just south of Paris.

Claude Monet: Grainstack, Sunset
		The primary subjects of all of the paintings in the series are stacks of hay that have been stacked in the field after the harvest season. The title refers primarily to a twenty-five canvas series begun the autumn of 1890 and continued through the following spring, using that year's harvest. Some use a broader definition of the title to refer to other paintings by Monet with this same theme. The series is known for its thematic use of repetition to show differences in perception of light across various times of day, seasons, and types of weather. The subjects were painted in fields near Monet's home in Giverny, France.

The umbrella or parasol, brolly, gamp, parapluie and bumbershoot, as it is also known in other names, is one of man's oldest artifacts. Its long history spans great empires and interminable distances, and has been on record since there were records for things to be on. The history dates back just far enough that there is no conclusive evidence or agreement among brolliologists, those who study umbrellas, of the its true origin. Nor is it agreed upon whether it was first used as protection from the sun or from the rain.

Below is a wonderfully interesting article about umbrellas that I found over at the Big Site of Amazing Facts, mixed in with a little color inspiration.

Photo by dearoot

The umbrella is so old that brolliologists can't agree on its origin, or decide whether it was first used for protection from the rain or the sun. They do know that it was employed as an item of religious and ceremonial regalia from the earliest days of ancient Egypt. Egyptian mythology held that the visible sky was actually the underbelly of a god stretched from one end of the earth to the other like an immense umbrella. Hence, in contemporary art, priests and Pharoahs were often placed in the shade of an umbrella to symbolize royal and religious power.

Assyrian tablets dating from 1350 B.C. depict a king leading his retinue while servants shade the royal head with a long-handled parasol. In India, a religious group known as the Jains called their ultimate heaven of perfected souls by a name that translates as "The Slightly Tilted Umbrella."

Photo by Elizabeth Thomsen

The early Greeks used the umbrella as a symbol of productivity and sexual aggression, usually associated with the god Bacchus, and they carried umbrellas in many of their parades and festivals. In later centuries, the Greeks put the umbrella to a more utilitarian use as a sunshade, and developed sunshade hats similar to the sombrero.

The Romans, too, used parasols against the sun. Women attending chariot races in the amphitheatre sometimes dyed their parasols to denote their favorite chariot team. If you've ever attended a football game in drizzly weather and have been annoyed to no end by umbrellas blocking your line of vision, you may find it comforting to know that the Romans had a similar problem at their games, with a hot dispute over parasol use finally decided by the emperor Domitian, in favor of the sunshade.