Today I would like to share a little bit about how I have been working in the last 8 or so months. I can put colors together, but since I have no formal art education, I like to purchase any aids I feel will help me. One of the tools that helps me with color is Joen Wolfrom’s 3-in-1 Color Tool. This portable tool has color swatches of tints, pure colors, shades and tones of colors. It also shows all the color schemes for each color…monochromatic, complementary, analogous, split-complementary, and triadic. I find the triadic color schemes to be the most interesting, using both warm and cool colors. This tool has helped put sparkle in my color schemes, so much so, I get compliments on them.
One of the intimidating things for me about starting a piece is choosing a color scheme. It also can put me off from starting a piece; it takes time. I work fairly intuitively, so thinking of focal point, color, etc. ends up being a lot of thinking for me! So I have come up with a way to do some of that work ahead of time. I spent some time this past year choosing triadic schemes (using my favorite colors) and then matching up piles of fabric to that scheme. And because it was interesting to see and learn about the different triadic schemes, it was also fun! The fabric piles also include painted dryer sheets, dyed scrim, dyed cheesecloth, and any other item that matches that scheme. Then, when I am ready to start a piece, I simply choose a color scheme and the fabrics I need are already sorted and bagged together, ready for me to start. I can add to these bags anytime I want. I was reminded of how easy this made it when I went to work on the postcard for Susan Lenz a couple of days ago. All I had to do was pull a bag out and get right to work.
So here are some of my “piles” of coordinated fabrics ready to work whenever I am. Notice that most, (ok, all) of the fabrics are hand dyed, hand painted, etc. I rarely use commercial fabrics anymore. I keep my stamps and paints on hand, ready to transform any piece of cloth I need to fit the theme I am working with.
orange yellow, aqua green, purple
golden yellow, aqua blue, fuchsia
chartreuse, blue-red, cerulean blue
orange, violet, green
yellow green, blue, red
Art Journal---A Creative Journey 
What a great exercise you created for yourself. I’m quite partial to that golden yellow, fushia, blue scheme…although the bottom one is quite eye catching too.
Such yummy colours! And i make all my own these days too, I never buy commercial fabric any more.
What an awesome idea! That is a great thing to do when “all else fails”…simply work on your color scheme bags…I think that I will “adopt” that idea! You get a gold star for the best idea I’ve read all day long! And the fabrics are beautiful , very good combos’s.
That’s a great idea! I just started dyeing and now, I’m almost overwhelmed by all the fabric and color, so I may have to give this a try. I love to just look at it all, but that’s not getting me anywhere — LOL!
This is a great idea. No need to destroy your studio looking for just the righrt fabrics which is what I do!!
Absolutely brilliant! I’ve been looking for a better way to organize my fabric. You’ve really got me thinking.
great color choices…a woman after my own heart!
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