Jane Stafford is known for her distinctive use of colour. She shared her approach in the workshop. First she created a huge colour wheel on the table with all the colours of 2/8 cotton. (It helps if you have a yarn store in the next room!)
Jane knelt on top of the table, and selected yarns to interpret the pictures we had torn from magazines. Any photograph, or artwork could be used as a source of inspiration with this method. The main thing was just to choose something that appealed to you.
Jane has a tried and true formula for choosing colour, based mostly on the usual elements of design. Her innovations include the use of a "zinger" - a small amount of a colour that is either brighter or from the opposite place on the colour wheel.
In the photo below, the image of a golden retriever lying in a cool toned hallway becomes an analogous blue-green colourway with a bright orange as the zinger.
It was definitely an easy and fun approach to designing with colour, quite different from my formal Bauhaus-style courses back in art school. The only caveat for me would be the random nature of my stash, based as it is on thrift store finds. I tend to work with what I've got, and sometimes have to really stretch to create a pleasing design. It's not surprising that my dreams after this workshop were filled with colour.
And speaking of all the colours of the rainbow,
Sherri Lynn Wood over at Daintytime has a giveaway with a great story behind it!
sigh......what a fantastic class
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