A Bit About Color And More

It is finally SPRING!!!!!!!!!!! Spring brings to mind COLOR! Currently in one of my groups I'm taking a Color Theory Course and that is mainly what this blog will be about, but first some other things I've been working on.



My newest wearable creation is this black crocheted shell cloche worked in two strands of fingering cotton thread. Someone on one of my groups asked the question "What is Irish Crochet?" My definition to her was "dimensional" crochet. Traditionally Irish Crochet is built up floral patterns (and leaves) added to a mesh background. Soooooo I decided to add a dimensional flower, in red, to my black cloche. The center of the flower is a fancy black button. The hat and flower remind me of the type of hat worn in pictures of my mother in her "flapper" days.

My latest piece of bobbin lace. This bookmark is worked in two shades of blue size 20 Anchor crochet cotton.



COLOR!!! A subject that sometimes just boggles my mind with decisions to make. So, I was tickeled "pink" when my StitchMAP group offered a course in Color Theory.

The first thing we had to do was make a color wheel, add matching floss if we could, then mark our favorite (complementary) color. One of my favorite colors is purple. The compliment of purple is yellow and that is one of my least favorite colors .... go figure! We then had to use a wavy line drawn between the warm and cool colors. According to the writer of the course my wavy line would have placed the yellow green on the cool side. My eyes do not see yellow green as a cool color so I have placed it on the warm side. After all this is my color wheel and I need to understand the colors as I see them.

Next we had to sort the colors into light, medium, and dark shades. Here is how I placed the color chips I had. All the color chips I'm using for my study came from the paint department of WalMart. It used to be when you went looking for paint chips you would find a strip of paper with quite a few shades of a color showing. I couldn't find anything like that but found nice size rectangles of color which make it possible to use one chip several different ways. Light colors on the left, medium colors in the middle and dark colors on the right.

Another chance to show warm and cool colors. If you'll look closely at the cool colors you'll see I've place the yellow green in this group. This is the same yellow green that I placed in the warm section of my color wheel. BUT here, the yellow green is definitely a cool color. There is a yellower, yellow green in the warm section. I'm finding that depending on what the color is placed beside will ultimitely determine the warmth or coolness of a particular color. Yellow green is one of those colors.


AHA!!!! Color Graduations! And here I thought this was "shades". Well, naturally I had to do a purple "graduation". There is a difference between shade, tint, tone, etc. and this course is helping me learn those differences. I also chose to do a green graduation ..... really two different green graduations. Then I did one in blues. If you'll notice these are all cool colors. Wonder why I didn't do one in the warm colors as I really like warm colors. Probably because my wardrobe is basically cool colors. I am beginning to adventure out and add warm colors to my wardrobe and I love those cheerful, bright colors.


The next part of our homework assignment was to show high and low intensity of colors. This was the hardest part for me, but I think I managed.


Now, for the stitching part of our assignment where we were allowed some freedom as to flower design, color choice and method of presentation (paper, paint, fabric, etc.). The author of the course provided a simple outline to embroider as well as a chart for cross-stitch. Our flowers had to be worked with three different temperature - cool, warm, cool & warm. On a tiny scrap of 14 count Aida I followed her chart using warm (shaded red) for the flower and cool (shaded green) for the leaves. My threads of choice were Sassa Lynne hand dyed perle cottons from the UK. This is my cool & warm presentation.



On a scrap of muslin I worked a buttonhole flower in warm (orange) with French Knot (yellow) center. The stem is chain stitch and the leaves are outline stitch with briar stitch (aka single feather stitch) for veins. My warm flower is a design I traced from Flower Designs Compiled by Dorothy B. Rush. This booklet is filled with line drawings that may be used in multiple mediums and was given to me. It must be self-published as it has no copyright, publishing, or other pertinant information.


My final flower was also traced from the Flower Designs book. My "cool" flower is stitched in purple using detached chain (aka lazy daisy) with a blue colonial knot for the center. The threads for both flowers were Ginnie Thompson flower threads.


If you find this course of interest to you, I'd like to invite you to visit and join StitchMap. You'll find us at http://groups.yahoo.com/groups/stitchmap/

Till we meet again may you have a blessed day!