Joen Wolfrom's book, Color Play: Easy Steps to Imaginative Color in Quilts, is available from C&T Publishing.
|
|
Excerpts from the Experts
Interview with Joen Wolfrom
What would you suggest as a first step for a quiltmaker wanting to become more comfortable with color?
I believe a quilter should begin her color study by first selecting a color she loves. This will be her featured color for as long as she wants to explore its color possibilities. Selecting other hues to go with this color should be easy, if the quilter has a color guide or good visual reference to help her along. She should feature this color while she experiments with the five basic color schemes. This will allow her to work with a color she loves while expanding her color horizons. A quilter could very easily feature one color in at least a dozen quilts---and each quilt would have a different personality, because no two would use the same color combinations.
I believe the first color scheme to work with is the analogous color plan. It is very easy to achieve success by following this plan's guidelines. The next color plan to explore would be the complementary color scheme. More than likely, it will take a bit of time acquiring colors for this project. A complementary color scheme is very beautiful, but it can be difficult to discern what colors actually go into such a scheme. So, it's important that the quilter follow a good color reference or mix the paints of the two opposing colors. This latter option usually sounds a bit scary for quiltmakers, so a good complementary color guide is usually the way to go.
The third project with the same featured color would combine the two color schemes worked with previously. By using both analogous colors and the featured color's complement, the quilter will find she has created beautiful harmony with a striking temperature shift.
A more daring, sometimes whimsical, and often very beautiful color scheme is the triadic combination of colors. The quilter should check with a good color guide to see what her featured color's triadic partners are. Naturally, she will want to use a wide amount of hues within each of these color families.
As the quilter works with the four previous quilts, she should be purchasing more fabrics that belong to her featured color's family. If she has enough value and intensity changes in her fabric selections, she can then look forward to creating a quilt with a monochromatic color scheme. This is the most difficult scheme to work in successfully, because it requires a good range of hues from light to dark, or a good range of hues that range from intense to very grayed. If the quilter does not have a large selection of value and intensity changes in her color's fabric, she should delay working in this color plan.
By the time the quilter has worked with her selected color in four or five of its various color plans, she will know her color very well. She will have made beautiful quilts, because she has followed nature's guideline. She may then be quite anxious to begin experimenting with another color. As she experiments, she will find herself attracted to more colors, and better understanding their personalities and nuances. This will naturally expand her color use. Within time, she will find that she responds positively to many colors when they are placed with their natural partners.
A quilter should not use a featured color that she does not like. She should enjoy or love her featured color. By working with a color that is distasteful or lifeless to her, she almost always assures herself that the project will be a struggle to complete. It rarely turns out, as the quilter is not in tune with the color, and understandably, it, in turn, does not respond.
|
