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Color is the reason I weave. I am constantly chasing interesting and unexpected color combinations in my work and exploring how to keep color fresh and vibrant as it gets interlaced. I’m a big believer that all colors can find a way to work together to achieve different moods and harmonies, and delightful results are possible with the most surprising combinations.
Traditional color theory is very helpful in understanding color relationships, but you can get started experimentally designing without having all these concepts in your back pocket. I often design based solely on intuition and then analyze the decisions later. Gist’s sister brand Zollie recently released Palette Scout, and it is a great tool for working this way. There’s tons of color cards to begin arranging palettes, and later you can review your palettes based on the color wheel and see what worked and why.
A non-negotiable for me and color play is learning the terms used to describe colors. Familiarize yourself with color descriptors: hue, intensity, tones, tints and shades. Practice describing colors using these words. These words will open a new world of how to really see color. Palette Scout’s directions include a few pages dedicated to these terms, and lots of opportunity to use them as you build palettes.
Here’s a few tips for how I put unexpected colors together in weaving.
Color schemes are combinations of colors that have a relationship in the color wheel. These include primary, secondary, and tertiary triads, complements, split complements, analogous colors, etc. Working color wheels will typically have these relationships mapped out for you. A personal favorite of mine is the primary triad: red, yellow, and blue. I use it or dress in it so much that my partner and I lovingly refer to it as “pri tri.” Red, yellow and blue are the base colors of the RYB color wheel. All subsequent colors come from combinations of these three.
If you used these colors straight on at their highest intensities, you may give off some real kindergarten vibes. Red, yellow and blue are bold colors with a strong association on their own. But when you shift them a bit, some exciting things start to happen.
A few years ago, I wove a baby blanket using Gist’s Mallo Cotton Slub in Spice, Honey, and Frost. Only later did I realize that I’d used pri tri once again. I picked those same three colors out of the Palette Scout deck. The blue leans a bit green, but that’s what makes it interesting. The colors all together create a beautifully subdued primary triad.
Palette Scout Deck equivalents: Garnet shade, Buttercup, and Pine tint
Colors all exist in relationship to one another. Weavers can get really stuck looking at cones of yarn that are all the same size and struggling to imagine how the colors could blend in a weaving. But color palettes with the most interest use several colors, all at different proportions. A guideline I think about a lot is the 60/30/10 rule, a concept I learned from the interior design world in building a room palette. Use three colors: 60% is a base color, 30% a supporting color, and then a 10% accent color. The accent provides a much needed interest piece while the 90% colors can create some color harmony.
For example, I searched through the deck for two colors that caught my eye, but I wouldn’t think to put them together. I settled on Pine 4, a green-blue tint and Ibis 1, a reddish-purple shade. These are two very different colors — one is cool and light valued, the other warm and dark valued. They are in different quadrants of the color wheel, which confirms that they are, in fact, quite different!
For a third color, I want something that has a higher intensity to it because I already had a tint and a shade. I also want a hue that relates to one of the colors. I chose a full intensity red, Garnet 3.
I mocked up an example of how one could use these colors in a twill pattern on Fiberworks. (Other non-digital options include colored pencil drawings and warp striping cards!) For the warp, Ibis was my 60%, Pine was 30%, and Garnet was 10%. For weft, I kept Ibis as my dominant 60%, but used pine as the 10% accent. (BTW, I am never exacting with percentages when I use the 60/30/10 rule. I use it as a guideline to think about main colors, supporting colors, and accent colors.)
Flipping the proportions of this “60/30/10” rule in warp and weft helps these clashing colors relate to one another in both the warp and the weft and gives the piece rhythm without using symmetrical striping patterns. The result is a fresh take on three unexpected colors!
While I am a huge proponent of bright, high intensity colors, I don’t always want my pieces to look raucous. Sometimes putting too many bold colors together makes every color lose what makes it special. Colors always exist in relationship to each other, and we use contrast to help us understand differences in hue. Thus, we need to give our beloved high intensities something to be compared to.
We usually think of neutrals as shades of beige and gray, but lots of colors can work as a “neutral,” especially if they are a tone. Add gray to any color and it muddies the color and subdues the hue. In Palette Scout, the opposite sides of all cards show possible tones of the base hue.
Sometimes I like to pull a couple disparate colors out of nowhere and figure out how to make a striping pattern with them using yarn wraps. This is a great challenge for getting out of your head and coming up with interesting color combinations. In this example, I’ve pulled three colors together by using a green-blue tone as the base color in repeat. It even helps bring harmony to an asymmetrical striping pattern.
I know, this feels like a cop out, but it is my number one guideline. No rules necessary. Use colors that excite you. Use colors that bewilder you. And then start experimenting.
I love the challenge cards in the Palette Scout deck. They play off this same first principle. One card asks you to create a color palette that reminds you of your favorite song. No wrong answers! You decide!
My interpretation of the song “Pink Pony Club” by Chappell Roan
I also recommend always throwing an extra half yard for sampling on your warp. Use it at the beginning to guide your weft choices, or use it at the end after you’ve woven your pieces and have some new ideas bubbling. I like to collect lots of different kinds of yarns and then try them out in these sampling zones. There’s no need to buy everything! A lot of great yarn exists at thrift stores, garage sales, or, if you’re lucky, a prolific weaver’s stash! Throw it into your sampling and observe.
Some weavers like to use up all their scraps for utilitarian uses, but I like to keep mine in a bin and sort through them when I’m needing some inspiration. They are my sketches, full of failures and exciting possibilities. It takes time and a LOT of weaving to build up this delightful stash, but once you have it, you’ll always have somewhere to turn for inspiration. Some of my favorite color combinations have come from this trove of samples, sometimes years between the sample and the finished piece.
I hope these ideas help you gain enough confidence to take risks in your next piece — even if it’s just in your extra warp! Experimentation has the highest return on investment, so be bold and curious! And show us what you come up with.
Christine Ann Novotny is a textile artist, designer, and floor loom weaver who runs the textile studio CAN Goods. Christine weaves vibrant textiles, all guided by her love for surprising color and design interactions. Christine’s work reflects a belief that handweaving retains reverence and relevance in a modern world dominated by industrialized goods. She seeks to bring an energy to handweaving that invites people to reconsider the textiles in their life, and to evolve the practice of handweaving through contemporary handwoven goods and craft education.
