Heather
Retired2006-2008 · Color No. 328
Introducing Heather, made by The Fiesta Tableware Company from 2006 to 2008. It's a soft and subtle shade of purple, reminiscent of blooming heather flowers in a tranquil meadow. Heather adds a touch of tranquility and elegance to any tablescape. Mix and match Heather with colors like White and Sunflower for a delicate and romantic table setting, or pair it with Plum and Slate for a more sophisticated and serene combination.
Production
Heather was retired in 2008, so it is a hunt for secondhand pieces now. Fiesta Factory Direct is where the colors still being made are, if you are filling a set.
Shop Fiesta Factory Direct (opens in a new tab)Notes on Heather
Heather managed two years, 2006 to 2008, which puts it among the scarcer Post 86 colors. It's a muted, grayish purple - much softer and lighter than the Plum it overlapped with, and genuinely hard to photograph accurately, which is why listings for it vary so wildly. It replaced Periwinkle Blue on the shelf. Claret, which arrived eight years later, is the closest Fiesta has come to it since. If you like quiet, complicated colors rather than bright ones, this is one of the more interesting things the company has made, and it doesn't come up often.
Using Heather on a table
Heather is soft enough to sit beside almost anything. It works as a bridge between two stronger colors that would otherwise argue. At L* 29 it is a genuinely dark plate, so pale food stands out on it and dark food disappears. It separates strongly from a white cloth (9.7:1) and less so from dark wood.
Below, 5 combinations built only from colors Fiesta has actually produced. Each says which rule it follows, and which pieces you can still buy today.
The pairing in its own description
Named in the descriptionThese colors are named alongside Heather in this guide's description of it.
Buy these to go with it
Heather was retired in 2008, but these are all in production now - the set you can actually finish buying.
Opposite on the wheel
Green (Light) sits roughly opposite Heather in hue, which is the highest-contrast pairing the palette offers. The neutrals keep it from shouting.
- White
-
Your color Heather
- Green (Light)
- Black
All purple
Every color here is from the purple family, arranged light to dark. A single-family table reads calm and deliberate rather than busy.
Three-way split
Chartreuse and Periwinkle Blue sit about a third of the way around the color wheel from Heather in each direction. Evenly spaced hues stay lively without any one taking over.
- White
- Periwinkle Blue
- Chartreuse, 1997-1999
-
Your color Heather
Where Heather sits in the line
Heather arrived while Plum was still in production, and is lighter and more muted than it - a clearly different glaze rather than a reformulation (ΔE 15.8). It lasted 2 years where the median for its era is 7, which is why it turns up so rarely. In 2006 it took the place of Periwinkle Blue on the shelf. What else happened in 2006 →
Closest colors in the palette
Ranked by CIEDE2000 (ΔE) against Heather. Under about ΔE 5 two colors are hard to tell apart side by side - useful when you are identifying an unmarked piece.
On the table alongside Heather
17 colors were in production at the same time. The 10 nearest in the timeline: