Laurie Mika’s mixed media pieces are full of color, texture and imagery. Polymer and ceramic tiles, paint, beads, jewelry and more combine to make beautiful mosaic icons, tables, chairs and boxes. I am amazed at how many pieces she gets done and that her confident use of color shows up in every piece. In one […]
Smashing Color
with Maggie Maggio
Since summer ends this weekend, let’s look at some of the color forecasts for the Fall. Even though I don’t believe that color forecasts are always accurate, it is fun to look at them and find colors that you might like to try in your work. This Fall’s Pantone Colors are a mixture of deep earths, soft earth […]
Dr. Shinobu Ishihara developed the most widely used tests for color blindness while he was a military physician in the Japanese Army in the early 1900’s. He hand painted the first charts himself using watercolors and Japanese characters instead of numbers. Today the plates are printed to exacting standards and used all over the world as […]
This chart shows ten colors selected because they can be differentiated by people with normal, protan and duetan vision. When would you want to use these colors? Probably not in jewelry design or quilting or painting but can you imagine how difficult it might be to use a map if you were color blind? […]
On the left is a color pyramid the way I see it. On the right is the same triangle the way my next door neighbor Steve sees it. Steve is red/green color blind. When I asked him what it is like to be color blind he said, “See that bush with flowers. They are pink, […]
Lindly Haunani and I often tell the story of how we met. It was at the National Polymer Clay Guild retreat in the spring of ’95. I brought copies of a color mixing chart for Fimo that I was selling as a fundraiser for my daughter’s 6th grade class. The kids made all the mixes as part of a lesson […]
Lindly Haunani has joined the blogging world with a new site called “Lindly – Talking Color.” She will be sharing her top 100 tips in addition to musing about the creative process and showing some of her latest pieces. Lindly and I have taught color workshops together a number of times, starting way back at the first […]
The Name That Color site reminded me of a game I sometimes use in workshops to jumpstart a discussion about naming colors. Its looks like a quiz so it might trigger some test anxiety. Don’t fret. I included an answer key. Try to fill in the blanks before looking at the answers. Its not too hard once you get started. Since […]
Chirag-Mehta has done an amazing amount of research trying to pin down some common names for colors. Name That Color allows you to pick a hue and then play with all the variations to see what names come up. Its fun! The diagram you will use to select the colors is based on the HSL color space. Thanks […]
I spent the summer flying and teaching. My first stop was at the The Fiber Studio in Henniker, New Hampshire for a two day Smashing Color Workshop. The Fiber Studio is a colorful store filled with stunningly beautiful yarns for knitters and weavers – very inspirational! The workshop was held in the store’s classroom; a […]
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