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resources for the textile arts community
The colour wheel is a simple diagram that explains the basic facts about colour.
For this you will need paint in black, grey, white and one of the colours from the colour wheel.
Hint Play about with various variations of the shades and tints + the pure hue until you arrive at a pleasing colour scheme.
Colours opposite to each other on the colour wheel are known as complementary e.g. yellow and purple, red and green, blue and orange.
Hint Johann von Goethe assigned a number to colours to indicate the proportion of different colours to give a balanced result: Yellow 3, Orange 4, Red 6, Violet 9 Blue 8, Green 6. For example, if your scheme includes yellow and violet you should use 3x as much violet to yellow. You can try this rule with stripes.
Colours are associated with events, moods etc.
Hint A list of words associated with colours looks better if you alter your handwriting or font on a computer to describe the word, e.g. red for danger may be big and bold.
Make a mood board for a landscape feature and its associated colours e.g. blue lagoon, autumnal woodland, and polar landscape. You may have to produce a mood board to show your client your ideas.
Collect scraps of fabric, paper, and bits, cut from magazines featuring the chosen colours.
Stick these to a board in a simple arrangement appropriate to the theme. For instance, cut scraps into swirls and arrange in an overlapping way to give a lagoon effect or simple leaf shapes and stick down in a random pattern for a woodland theme.
Mood boards
Make a colour wand, winding various types of threads around it. All manner of things can be used to make colour wands - embroidery threads, wools, shredded fabrics, wires, strings, tapes, etc. Beginning with yellow, you can work through the colour wheel and the rest of the colour schemes to make a range of colour wands.
Deciding on colour schemes or harmonising with existing ones may become an important aspect of your craft work. Some very original colour schemes can result from selecting the colours you like the least. It is also a good idea to sometimes work with a limited palette of colours to produce monochromic effects (tints, tones, and shades of one colour).
Keep your eyes open around you for colourful inspirations in nature, or in the built environment - take photographs or work from postcards.
Hanging based on trees for a hospice relatives room overlooking a wood
Trees in winter colours
A book cover - The Memory of Trees, in autumn colours
© 2012 Rosemarie Smith
Rosemarie Smith offers a range of day workshops to Embroidery Groups, W.I, schools, etc, in the South West, and longer courses through Kersbrook Training open and distance learning.