Often  zooming in on an image can inspire new design and color combination ideas. Today I’m zooming in on chairs. These are three very different details from chairs made by artists for the Chair Affair fundraiser – the annual auction for the Portland Community Warehouse. Many Portland artists contribute pieces to the auction. Some make the […]

Target aired a new commercial on the Grammies. It features the song ‘Alouette, Gentile Alouette’ by The Delta Rhythm Boys. If you haven’t seen this fun spin on color, check it out on YouTube. Happy Valentines Day! May all your days be filled with color!

Since I alway start with the #1 setting, this version of the chart has the thick settings at the top. PDF Version: Pasta Machine Standards 4.0

The Racine Art Museum’s Terra Nova: Polymer Art at the Crossroads closed on Sunday. The first major museum exhibit of polymer art in the country, this show could never have happened without the vision and intrepid determination of polymer artist and advocate Elise Winters. I first heard Elise’s dream for a museum show as we […]

This fun color matching game starts out easy- just move the open circle bullseye around the outside of the wheel until the two colors of the inside circle match. Then it gets a little more difficult – match the saturations, then match the complementary colored pieces of pie. Match analogous and triadic color schemes.  It ends […]

The Mingei International Museum in San Diego is currently showing their collection of polymer beads and beaded jewelry in New Jewelry in a New Medium: The Art of Polymer Clay.   I visited the Mingei a few years ago when my friend Doshi had a one woman show of her fiber art. Its a beautiful […]

Putting colors in order according to value can be tough. Here are the twelve colors from the post about value last month. I put them in the order I thought they should go and scanned the results in grayscale. They fall into three value ranges – dark, medium, and light but, as you can see, […]

“I’d like to get all the colors in the world into one painting.”    Willem de Kooning I grew up surrounded by paintings done by mom and dad. One of my favorites is a large canvas that still hangs over the mantle in the living room. It was painted by my dad in the late […]

There’s no Saturday School today.  We are off for the holidays until Jan 7th. While you are waiting to get back to work on your color exercises, here’s my holiday gift to all of you – the link to the website of  Hand/Eye magazine and blog. HAND/EYE is an independent, international publication which explores the nexus between […]

The Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show, one of the top craft shows in the country, opens on Thursday. Over 1300 artists applied this year and 195 were selected. Here’s a sampling from the Northwest artists at the show.   Tia Kramer, Seattle, Washington | Emerging Artist  . . . Ann Williamson, Portland, Oregon | […]

I am in Racine, Wisconsin for the opening of the Racine Art Museum’s Terra Nova polymer show. The preview last night was spectacular. I was constantly thinking, “I remember when ____ made that!” One of the best parts of the weekend is seeing so many of the friends I’ve made in the polymer community over the […]

The photos and videos of the royal wedding in Bhutan are starting to stream in via the internet. Its a joy to see all the vibrant color! The first time I heard of Bhutan was reading Ancient Futures by Helena Norberg-Hodge. I’ve longed to visit this beautiful country that measures success on a Gross National Happiness scale […]

Sherwin Williams is opening a new store in our neighborhood and offering 40% off on all paint. Even though I am not planning to repaint my living room anytime soon, it did get me thinking about changing the color. Don’t get my wrong. I love the color it is now. We wanted something warm and […]

We are playing with Log Cabin designs inspired by quilting in Saturday School tomorrow. You can find Log Cabin images all over the web and in a gazillion books but I just recently came across Brenda Ratiff’s quilt as you go versions on her Flickr site, justabitfrayed. Because I get very frustrated when I sew, I […]

Color collaging is one of my most important studio tools.  I use it in all my workshops as a way for students to get in touch with color combinations that resonate for them.  Along those lines,  I want to share with you the wedding planning blog, The Perfect Palette. Chrissy started planning her own wedding by collaging […]