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Tuesday 14 October 2008

blending workshop

I wrote in my last entry that I am participating in the workshop "colour blending" in the OLG. our first job was to choose a photo we like - colourwise. at first I couldn't decide between a landscape and a picture with fritillaries, but eventually I decided for the flowers as I like the colour scheme (of course, the flowers being mostly purple:)).

the fritillary is a very interesting flower. its nodding heads look like a miniature chess board, mostly in purple shades - everything from very dark reddish purple to very light, nearly white. white blossoms can be found too - but even most of those have very light square markings, some purple, some greenish - and all different! the photo I used (not the one above) has a lot of green, but also some blue and yellow from other flowers and it was great fun to try to match some of them in fibre blends! I found the purple tones easiest - the green wasn't, though I found out later that blends, which looked too blue at the start, blend more when spun up - and look far greener either in a photo or from further away!

those are the blends I came up with - the 4 rolags on top didn't "make it" - i.e. the colours didn't match as well as the others!

the colours look a bit darker, when spun into yarn - all 2plies, which I want to use on a small tapestry later.

of course, one small strand of yarn won't be enough for the tapestry, so I wondered if I would be able to match the yarns I made from the first single rolags! and it worked quite well, even though I only guessed the percentages; the amounts were too small to weigh them out correctly. Alison, our tutor, suggested using sheets with notes - and this was definitely a good idea, as it is easy to forget just how much red and blue was in that lovely purple:)
I do like the colours very much and I would like to work on a sweater or vest in a similar colour scheme (maybe without the yellow?) - but first I am going to finish spinning the rolags and working on the tapestry! I hope it works out the way I have it in my head - I don't plan on doing real blossoms; I would like to combine the colours with the common name (at least it's that when translated from german!) "chessboard flower". so the colours of the flower - and the checked pattern, but not in the shape of a flower!! well, if you can't imagine that - wait for the result:)

8 comments:

Helen said...

Fabulous- just fabulous! I love the little row of rolags without anything else. You could have them as an "instalation" just by themselves. I want to do ths workshop but suddenly life has filled up with workshops and with the exhibition next week. Maybe I will cathc up later.

Woolly Bits said...

Helen, I know what you mean! when I had blended my 4 or 5 colours that we were supposed to do - I just couldn't stop myself from doing some more:)) it's great fun to see that the principles of blending work the same (or pretty much so) with fibres as with water colours etc. now I am totally addicted and I am going to try to blend some of those colours I am not happy with - to see if a mix works better! I think I'll better get the drumcarder out of its box after all... I had done loose rolags at first, but decided to roll around a dowel to make them less prone to crushing - and they look much neater too:) DS asked what I am going to do with those colourful "cigars".

Leigh said...

Oh, how lovely!!! I've resisted having anything to do with that workshop, but now I think I missed out! Must go run and download the notes.

Anonymous said...

Oh, Bettina... Sind das traumhafte Farben! Ich bin ganz hin und weg! (Muss mir in Ruhe mal Deinen Text übersetzen, denn verstanden habe ich noch kaum etwas, aber meine Begeisterung brauchte gleich Worte.)
Liebe Grüße
Jana

Woolly Bits said...

Leigh - I think you should, it's great fun and very addictive:)) I think I am going to blend some for my second photo, even though just one was asked for:)) if I keep going I'll need new bags of fibre soon! there's not much to download anyway...

Wollkistchen said...

Mensch, Bettina, ich fall jedes Mal beim Schauen in Deinen Blog fast tot um. So tolle Farben und so schöne Garne *seufz*, da rattert es im Kopf mit tausend Ideen. Und dann plumpse ich zurück auf den Boden der Tatsache, denke an meine knappes Zeitguthaben und bin gefrustet.
Superschön, ehrlich.
Schöne Grüße
Kristin

Anonymous said...

Hallo Bettina,
sind das die Mischungen aus den 36 Farben von Wollknoll? Sieht sehr gut aus und ich bin mal gespannt, wie du das Muster der Blume umsetzt. Das Muster gefällt mir auch gut. Hab selber jetzt noch kein Bild gesucht für die Mischungen, aber der Workshop interessiert mich auch sehr.
Gruß Juliana

Woolly Bits said...

Kristin - man kann eben nie alles tun:)) ich lass mich auch manchmal zu zuviel vefuehren, was dann i.a. in stress und hektik endet, sodass ich irgendwann einsehen muss, dass man nur 24 stunden am tag hat und zwei haende dazu! die alternative ist, sich mit jemandem zusammenzutun: der eine "macht garn", der andere verarbeitet es und dann macht der eine fuer den anderen was mit?

Juliana - ja, das sind ein paar der farben vom wollknoll-mixbeutel. sehr praktisch zum antesten von mischungen! es sind ja die farben, die sie auch in grossen mengen anbietet, da kann man vor dem kaufen von grossen mengen austesten, was einem am beste gefaellt. ich setz nochmal das bild ein, woraus die farben entstanden sind.