Wednesday, March 30, 2011

New Toys....er Tools!

a variety of colours wheels, some of them more 'accurate' than the others....I actually threw out a couple where the colours were really nasty!

Although The Project is on hold I have not forgotten about it. In fact I'm also developing the topic into a workshop, so I figured I may as well get a paint box and start working on the actual exercises for the book and the workshop. A book is great for people who can learn on their own, either because of their own personalities or because of necessity (i.e. they don't have access, for whatever reason, to personal instruction). But many people also feel more comfortable learning by doing under supervision.

It took me a long time to work up the courage to tackle colour use for weavers, mainly because I did not have an instinctive ability to work with colour. What I know about using colour in weaving came to me through studying it and simply getting into the trenches and weaving the colours together to see what happened when.....

And then being analytical about the results. Some of the colour combinations were of the "well, I won't do that again" variety, others were unexpectedly delightful. It was as instructive to analyse the won't do again's as well as the successful surprises. It took a long time to train my eye to see the components of a colour and recognize those which were siblings, distant cousins or not related at all. It took time to understand the value of - well, value - and how important that was to the success of a colour combination - much more important than the actual hue.

I'm working on developing the workshop as a one day non-weaving event. An opportunity to experiment and learn in an environment where there will be no mistakes, only a time to observe and learn.

Sarasota FL has already expressed an interest in the workshop so it's time to start getting my ducks in a row, as it were. Speaking of workshops, my fees will be increasing in May. Workshops booked before the end of May will be at my current rate. The calendar for 2012 is pretty open - March is the only month that is filled.

3 comments:

Laura Fry said...

Well, March and Oct/Nov, which are reserved for craft fairs. :)

cheers,
Laura

Sandra Rude said...

Oooh! Exciting topic! I *always* learn more from the color disasters than I do from the color victories. And I agree completely, value *is* more important than hue!

Liz said...

Colour is my passion, and I sure wish I was a lot closer,I have never taken a class in anything, and if I could it would be colour theory.
Maybe a home study course would be best for me.