Colour in Weaving

 

Right now I'm (supposed to be) working on a Power Point about colour in weaving - how weave structure will affect how we view the colour among other things.

This morning I took the above photo in part to show that I had actually begun to weave this warp that is more than 50% beige with peach/rose/other colours in it, and how the rose weft shifts how we perceive it.

I could use this or another warp/colour in the presentation - it's not the best photo.  I should have cropped out the shadow of the ipad at the bottom.  But I wasn't paying attention when I sent the file to myself.

Once again I'm struggling with sinus headache and the amount of patience I have could be measured only with a scale too fine for home use.

As I looked at the photo, so many of the little cliches I use are right there in plain view.  The rose weft is intensifying the rose and peach in the warp.  The pale colours (a light peach and yellow) are standing proud.  The blues have shifted to a more muted/greyed appearance and the beige slightly browns (or muddies) the rose.

But the result is fine.  I am happy enough with it that I will continue and use up the last of the rose flake.  And then I'll use up the peach flake.  Whatever is left will be beige.  

The beige is actually quite a bit lighter in value than either the rose or the peach, so the last towels on this warp should look quite different from the other two colours.

Sometimes weavers need to set aside their inner vision of how they thought the results would look and accept what is in front of them.  Just because the results don't meet that internal vision doesn't mean that the results are 'bad' - just different from expected.  If you don't really like what you see from the loom bench, sometimes getting up and viewing from a greater distance will provide insight.

Learning how colours interact, taking into account the scale (plain weave vs fancy twill, as above) and the distance at which the cloth will normally be viewed will give a different appearance for each.  And none of them might be 'bad' or 'ugly' just different from what was expected.

So these towels will look - from a distance - primarily rose, but a slightly dull rose with glints of light provided by the lighter value peach and yellow.  In certain lights the slightly greyed blue will give the cloth a warmer look

Sometimes we need to let go of our expectations and celebrate what is happening.  And learn from each and every warp.  Because they all have something to teach us.