Monday, February 17, 2014

Plain Weave Color Strategy - Inspiration is Everywhere

Sometimes, choosing colors can be a place to get stuck before you even get started. How do you choose? How do you know which colors will go together and make an impressive impact? 
Look around you. What colors grab your attention as you look at your surroundings?
Nature is a good source of inspiration. 
Did you ever say to yourself "Those flowers are the wrong color?"

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. 



This linen band echoes the light and dark pink of the clover flowers. Even a simple pattern such as this can look beautiful in the right color combination! Below is the pattern draft for this one.


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A local business has a large sign on their building sporting their logo and it kept catching my eye, so I decided that I should make it into a weaving pattern. I used two colors of green in about the same proportions and that beautiful dark red up the center. I think it really turned out great! 




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When I found these shoes, made from Molas (reverse applique technique made by Kuna Indians of Panama), I had to have them! There are so many colors here, but they all look great together in the design. The shoes needed to have special laces to go with them, I thought. So, I chose a few colors from the design.
I like the deep red of the background, and the turquoise blue was my other favorite, so I used them with some black outlines like the design in the shoes.




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The soft colors of these moccasins inspired me to weave a wide wool sash, now in the collection of my husband. I chose the buckskin leather color as the main color and used red, blue, yellow and white from the beadwork and quillwork for the pattern.




7 comments:

  1. Did you create the graph paper you use to make your designs? It is the best I've ever seen for inkle weaving. For some reason, I have a terrible time visualizing the design on regular graph paper. I'd be delighted to purchase it if I knew where to find it.

    elnhalseth@gmail.com

    Ellen

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    Replies
    1. There's a free program called Irregular Grid Painter that has an inkle setting. It's what I use when I design mine.

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    2. There is also this one. http://weavolution.com/draft/inkle-pattern

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    3. Thanks for the tip about IGP. I looked at the website and it is a bit over my head. When you have to download something BIG to download this program, I am hesitant. Can you show me an example of what the grid for inkle weaving looks like? I will have to decide if this is worth getting help to set up. I DO want to find a program which will help me to share my patterns more easily on the web. Thanks, Annie

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    4. I downloaded Irregular Grid Painter and the extra patterns, but I can't find an inkle setting... can you tell me where you got the inkle part?

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  2. Thank you both. This has been very helpful. Now I can branch out from using "recipes" and make up my own designs.

    Ellen

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  3. http://www.deviantart.com/morelikethis/collections/74494166

    This is the one I finally settled on for now. I can use my printer to enlarge it and go wild with the colored pencils. Inkle bands, here I come.

    Ellen

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