Thursday, March 11, 2010

Colour My World







One of my girls commented the other day that I was in my ‘colourful stage’. It’s true. For the longest time I was into blues & reds – homespun style and colours. For the last couple years I have gone back to my childhood - the psychedelic 60’s & 70’s. It started when I painted one of the kid’s vacated rooms, bright green. It was the same colour that I had painted my room when I was fourteen years old. It was fluorescent green & daffodil yellow back then, now I call it Green Apple. Sounds less 70s.

Sure enough, I have been sliding over to the more colourful side of life lately - being drawn to colours that I previously steered clear of. I blame it on my love affair with batik fabrics. I started collecting them a few years ago - to roll up, put in a basket and gaze upon. Since I don't actually do anything with them, I just have to buy fat quarters - which in itself is a wonderful exercise in restraint for me. They make me happy.

Which is what Brian said when he saw that I painted the pale yellow room fluorescent green... oops, I mean Green Apple. He said 'That's a very Happy Room.' I don't think that he was being sarcastic. At least I chose to think of it as a positive comment and painted the bathroom the same colour.

Last summer I attacked all my black crows with spray paint & I coloured them up good. They are Happy Crows now. They live in what I consider a sculpture & Brian considers a dead apple tree with the branches cut off.

There are lanterns in it as well & for Ashley & Andy's wedding, a multitude of stars, which also were transformed from traditional gold to funky multi-colours, complete with sparkles. Yeah for spray paint.






This week I have been adding colour to my life with dye. Haven't gotten around to the hair yet, but the week is not over.










With the snow disappearing fast, it was now or never to try the snow dyeing technique that I learned in NY a couple weeks ago. It was great fun. I mooshed up my fabric, covered it with a layer of snow & squirted the dye solution on it. As the snow melted it saturated the cloth.
I wasn't overly impressed with my results. I think I used too much fabric, too much snow & not enough dye as the colours are more muted than I would like. But that's what experimenting is all about - trial and error. They're pretty & have interesting patterns, but it's vibrancy that I am wanting in my life at this particular moment.

I had better results when I worked individually with little pieces of wool felt and boiled wool. I spent the whole day playing and had the most wonderful time trying colour combinations. I have dozens of unique, one of a kind pieces that I will use in the creation of my little folk. And I have another basket of colour to put beside my batiks.

I think it's wonderfully refreshing to move in a totally different direction for a time. I suspect that the vibrancy I am searching for will move more towards muted, restful colours at some point. And I shall be ready, willing and able to make the shift. Go with the flow, I say. And the flow just happens to be extremely colourful at the moment.

2 comments:

Sheryl Parsons said...

I just learned something new! I had no idea you could do that with dye and snow! Always learning from you EV!

Unknown said...

Wow! I have never seen anything like that either, very cool! Have a sweet day!