Friday, October 07, 2011

Notes on My Needlepoint Colorizations

I am beginning to receive quite a few queries about my colorizations and whether all Colorways are included in my patterns.

When I include the colorways, I specify in the description of the pattern, for example I included with Summer Solstice Geometric the original colors and the blue-green colors and the light blue and silver.

I do not include the ones for the examples I posted on my website this morning.

I have two comments to say about them:
first, I think you could email the colorization to your favorite shop and ask them to pull the colors.
Once you have the pattern, you could send them the threads and numbers in the pattern so that they would have a guide to go by.
I am sure that Pat Duggan, for example, would be happy to help you with the task.

Second, I am rather hoping that you will use the colorizations as inspiration and grapple with pulling them yourself.
It is a bit of learning and a bit of a stretch and a bit of growth well worth your while.

All summer and fall long (as long as fall has been, ie not long) I have been trotting down to our local needlework shop and pulling the colors to match my colorizations. Sometimes I can't find exactly what I did, but I find something close enough. If I can't find anything in a particular line of threads, say in Vineyard silk, I try pearl cotton or silk (figuring I will use multiple ply) or floss, or some other thread that catches my fancy.

Rarely is a design such that ONLY one thread in ONLY one color will work.

One of the reasons for studying color this way is to gain the confidence to find alternatives.

After all, needlepoint is our way of slipping into a imaginative world and playing with visually satisfying colors and textures.
Part of the joy is finding the exact way you see it in your mind. To do that you have to be a bit flexible and flexibility comes with confidence.

That's one of my purposes in leading my Shining Needle Society classroom. I want people to gain the confidence to try.
If you would like to join Shining Needle Society in general and my classroom specifically, membership is free.
Just write to KateGaunt@aol.com. Kate is the director of Shining Needle Society.

If you have any opinions about my colorizations, good or bad, I would welcome them, either posted publicly here or directed to me personally in an email. GARRogers@earthlink.net.

This post is long enough.

I have a couple of other issues about colorizations and my mysteries. I'll be back in a while and write another post.
Otherwise these will become so long nobody will ever read all the way through them.

Gay Ann

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