working with & exploring new colours
I got some fabric scraps in colours that I don’t usually use, combined with some block-printed fabric that I’m so enjoying using (see these here and here). And I’m making small easy-to-finish pieces at the moment, I’m still working on these little circle drawstring fabric pouches. How many do I need? Please don’t ask me that… I don’t know. When I’m finished wanting to make them is how many will be enough.
Perhaps I’ll create enough for an exhibition. I have been thinking of an exhibition - working on the idea of ‘vessels’ …. the form of body as vessel, the bags, etc. For me it’s something that can hold things and can be pull / poured empty. A combination of these. Anyway. Just an idea. And I’ll probably have a giveaway for some, because I love being able to do giveaways on both my Instagram and in my Stitch Circle Community. So stay tuned for either / both of these.
Here’s the things I started this past week, and haven’t quite finished. It’s still raining, and I have work happening, and I’ve been filming. But I’m trying to do my 10-minutes as I can. Trying. Coming to it as best as possible.
The how-to for making these were part of the Making Zen Stitching Retreat (which has now finished), but you can also find it as a free project in my Stitch Circle courses. I will be offering this as a stand-alone online course as well; you can join my newsletter to be notified when it’s ready.
There’s a certain way of working with different and new colours that I quite enjoyed. The process of seeing and thinking in new hues, light and dark. The warmth of one compared to another. I’m used to looking at blues or pinks, and some different oranges. But when combining them with mustard, patterns and prints; it’s been fun to explore this.
My way of working with colour is quite intuitive. I’ve talked about this in the stitch community space, and wanted to know more about the actual colour theory, but have decided that going with what my eye tells me and my instinct seems to know hasn’t much taken me astray so far.
I do know the basics of a colour wheel - primary, secondary, tertiary, complementary, hue, saturation, light, dark. I am often confused by warm and cool colours, because while it may seem obvious that reds, yellows and oranges are warm, while blues, greens and purples are cool, this is not actually the case. Some reds can be cool, some blues can be warm.
And that’s where I get a little confused - or where my instinct does lead me astray a little. Because, as far as I know, mixing warms with cools isn’t really correct for the way our eyes read colour. I’m guessing I just need to keep practicing and seeing where that leads me, and what I can learn from making mistakes.
Of course, it’s hard to make a mistake when it’s a giant quilt. Easier to let it go when it’s a smaller piece like these ones. But when I look at the combinations of my pieces above, I think that I have combined cool oranges / mustard with warm orange tones. And, in this small piece, I think perhaps it doesn’t matter too much in the scheme of things; especially as it will be folded around itself and not looked at as a flat piece.
But using these smaller ‘test’ pieces is an excellent way to hone our eyes, to practice trusting and leaning into our innate intuition. To know that we actually do know the answer. To stop giving away our knowledge to someone else because of the fear of getting it wrong. Many people do buy bundles of fabric for their quilts, and this is absolutely fine - especially when you’re learning and new at all of this (sometimes the making is very mind-draining, so the choosing of fabrics is too much to add to the mix). But after time I encourage you to look harder and deeper at the colours you are choosing, to consider the way they talk with each other. The way that some colours pull another colour out and some recede.
I do want to go more into colour theory, and to learn more and share more. Especially in relation to fabric, rather than painting. A few years ago I did a wonderful watercolour class with a friend and local children’s book illustrator Tamsin Ainslie (check out her Instagram, as she and I will start work on giving her a new website in a few months).
She shared some very in-depth information, and continues to do so when we chat around our kitchen tables, about colours and how they relate to each other. I love learning about this as it’s comparable from paint to fabric in the way that we use complementary colours (these are colours opposite each other on the colour wheel, such as purple and yellow, or red and green) to make them highlight and show each other off. It’s an interesting conversation to look at.
Well, so is looking at using analogous colours (these are the colours next to each other on the colour wheel, such as greens and blues, or yellows and oranges).
I do intend on learning more about colour, through practice, experiments, making mistakes and analysing them, and through active lesson learning. There isn’t a lot online for fabric specific, but I have found some that are giving me things to think about and look into more.
