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Saturday, February 22, 2014

Design Elements - How to Make a Good Design Better

This is one of my best design secrets, which I only discovered after decades of  weaving.
By adding a small line only one thread wide, you can add a lot of depth to a design! 
Choose either a totally contrasting color or a similar color one shade brighter. 
To really see the photos up close, please click on them- they get bigger.

Pattern drafts for you to work off of are included for several of these.

FOR SIMPLICITY OF USE, CONSIDER THE TOP ROW TO BE HEDDLED THREADS AND THE BOTTOM ROW TO BE OPEN THREADS ON ALL OF THE DRAFTS. 



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These are a few more examples where that line of color was added into the border of a piece with a pickup pattern.






10 comments:

  1. eskaFebruary 23, 2014 at 12:45 AM

    It's a great tip, thanks for sharing. I am noting down your designs as I am so bad at choosing colors! Your choices are gorgeus.

    Maybe you already know, but just in case... there's a free online resource called "Inkle pattern generator" where you can design and print your own patterns. It only works for plain weave, but I think it's very useful.

    Greetings.

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    1. Annie MacHaleFebruary 24, 2014 at 3:27 PM

      Thanks, Eska.
      Yes, I do know about that one. I'll have to try using that one and doing a screen shot. Someone mentioned a program on the last post, but I haven't been able to get it to work yet.
      ~Annie

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  2. Lori PuenteMarch 8, 2014 at 12:01 PM

    Annie, for those who feel color challenged there is a great iPhone app, if you search "seasonal colors" you should get "Sesonal colors lite". It's a free app. It sorts colors by the seasons, the rage of the 80's, Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. When you select a color it fills your screen and at the bottom has complimentary colors and so on. It's really nice if you are stumped about what might work with a color.

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    1. Annie MacHaleMarch 10, 2014 at 5:22 PM

      Hi, Lori.
      Thanks for that! I don't have an iPhone, but others may find this useful.
      There is also this fun website: http://colorschemedesigner.com/
      So great!
      ~Annie

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  3. JaneanJuly 8, 2014 at 7:34 PM

    Hi Annie, I'm wondering if you use graph made for beading for your designs? I love how yours looks and would be so much easier than following something that's two lines of letters.

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    1. Annie MacHaleJuly 8, 2014 at 7:50 PM

      Janean- I found the chart here: http://flufdrax.deviantart.com/art/Inkle-offset-graph-74494166 My daughter took it and put it into Microsoft Paint for me, so I can just click and fill the cells.

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    2. JaneanJuly 10, 2014 at 12:42 PM

      Thanks for the reply and web address. I'll need to give that a try. I hope I have as much success with it. A very valuable tool to be sure.

      Delete
  4. UnknownApril 5, 2015 at 9:47 AM

    Thank you for the great tips!

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  5. UnknownApril 5, 2015 at 10:01 AM

    I tried to look for the Microsoft paint and could not find it. Can you tell me where it is and maybe how to "work" it? Thanks!

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    1. Annie MacHaleJune 21, 2015 at 4:49 PM

      Hi, Torie. I'm sorry that I didn't see your comment sooner. I am no expert at using MSPaint. It is a program which you should be able to download for free to use on a PC computer. I barely have used it, but you can find out more information here. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/products/features/paint

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