Quiet Multi-colored Schemes

You can use a multi-colored thread as the basis for a quiet and calming color scheme.

I started this project last night and I’m so delighted by how it looks. It is the first time I’ve deliberately chosen to do this kink of color scheme and not made it either truly monochromatic or much brighter.

Here’s hows to do it.

1. Your choice of multi-colored thread is important. This one is Wild Violets Silken Pearl from The Thread Gatherer. Look for one which has colors in at least two color families and one which has mostly either tints (light colors) or tones (grayed colors) of about the same value.

2. Pick one of the colors to be emphasized in you piece. In this case I chose violet.

3. Pick threads of different textures. I have Impressions. metallic ribbon, floss, and silk, along with the silk pearl.

4. One of the threads should be in the narrow value range but a different texture. That’s the metallic for me.

5. One of the threads needs to be a very different value. For me this is the red-violet Impressions. Not only is it much darker, it is the only re-violet thread.

The problem with this kind of color scheme is that too often they turn out dull. There are several keys to making this work.

The more narrow the value range, the quieter the color scheme will be. The more the values are in the middle to light range, the more happy it will be.

But you still must have accents, that’s what lifts this scheme from the boring. Your accent should be from a color in the multi-color but should be significantly different in value. This color ends up being the first thing you notice in the piece and keeps the whole thing from looking vague and boring.

I’m sitting here thinking about other threads in my stash and composing more quiet color schemes using them.