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Congratulations to Georgana Gersabeck of Berkley, Michigan who proposed the name “Aurora” for Elise Winters’ new colorway. When she saw Elise’s bead strands she said, “I immediately felt I was 
looking at the Northern lights.”
Elise sent this me this message on Sunday:
” Your deadline has passed and I checked in to gather the last minute submissions. There were so many great suggestions. And I was very impressed with the depth of thought that people put into their submissions. I loved the Wikepedia research, the poetry and the humor (extra-orchid- ary). It was hard to make a choice. There were quite a few contenters – Fiesta & Calypso capture energy, Sorbet, mango, saffron, melonberry played to my love of luscious juicy FOOD!Â
But the final choice was (…drum roll…) Aurora.
When I submitted my list of finalists to Woody, he didn’t skip a beat before declaring Aurora as his choice. And then he made an indisputable case for it. (Leave it to the poets) He felt Aurora connected with nature and light – both of which are central influences in my work. Also, the seduction of shifting light/color is an element for which I strive.          Â
 So many thanks to Geo for finding the perfect solution to my naming problem. ”Â
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I add my thanks to everyone who participated in the “Name That Colorway” Challenge.  The names were all very evocative – I could visualize the beautiful inspirations behind each one. It was fun to see the many different ways you can interpret one set of colors.Â
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Over the last year there has been a flurry of interest in my Watercolor technique with tutorials and videos by enthusiastic artists popping up in many places.
Remember playing the game of “Telephone” or “Whisper Down the Lane” and by the time the last person repeated the information it was all mixed up? That’s what happened with the sharing of this simple technique that I first developed in 1998. So when Florence Jakarta contacted me about an official tutorial I happily agreed to send her the basic steps I use. The result is up today on the French blog, Parole de Pate.
The technique of washing a thin layer of clay over white clay is a great way to “pop” the color. The addition of a black layer adds depth. There are lots of variations to play with: marbelize the colors, add inclusions, add translucent clay to the colors or as thin top layer if you want to sand after baking.
A few years ago Judy Kuskin took a workshop and transformed the technique into gorgeous pieces by combining it with her elegant sense of style and innovative use of silver wire.
“Confetti” is the name I gave to this variation of the technique used by Diane Heller in Brazil for her beautiful bowl .
Florence has agreed to translate her tutorial into English so you can play with coming up with your own variations of the basic technique. I’ll be doing tutorials on some of my variations down the road soon, but in the meantime have fun with it. I’m looking forward to seeing where the exploration of the technique goes from here.
Here are two more places to get prisms. Sargent-Welch has a 25mm x 25mm for $7.50 plus shipping. Science Kit also has an equilateral triangle with a base for display for $9.50 plus shipping. The shipping cost is $8.00 in both cases. If you order more than one the shipping costs can be shared.
As someone who sorts anything and everything into color flows, I love the hurleygurley photo site sent in by Christelle. Its fabulous.Â
It reminds me of Jinny Beyers book Confidence for Quilters. Although its over ten years old, its one of the best books I know on creating color combinations that flow beautifully together. Her Three Key Ingredients for a successful color scheme:
1. Use several shades of the same color,
2. Use a deep dark,
3. Use an accent.
Check it out of the library even if you are not a quilter. It describes a process for making color decisions that is very different from the traditional craft books. And very successful.
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Tutorial Update
We are sticking with complementary colors for awhile. They affect mixing, composition, expression, temperature, movement and some things I can’t think of off the top of my head. Its a very complex part of color study so we are going to go deeper in our explorations starting on February 12th.
I would like to add a few things to the Materials List for Part 2 of the tutorials; some additional clay colors, another Kemper cutter and a prism.
You can get the equilateral prism from PhysLink suppliers for under $5.00 plus shipping. Sometimes stores that cater to teachers will carry them and you can also find them in the shops at science museums. If you want to see what the spectrum version of RGB and CMY really look like – get a prism and I’ll show you how in a couple weeks. Its really cool.
