A Question of Color....

 

 Blue... Gold.... Green...

As You might be aware, Dear Readers, I have been wrestling a lot recently with Color choices for my many various stitching projects. This is in great part due to my tendency to change the designs that were the original kit specifications, but also due to the change of thread type being used due to the changed scale of the project. The threads specified for the Wyvern (and the future Lion) cushion, are all intended for DMC cotton pearl thread and the projects were scaled for RL products. When I noticed that the number of stitches for the Wyvern design was exactly the same as that for the Milles Fleures Kits I had been stitching, I assumed I could just use the same Milles Fleures kit silk threads for the Wyvern. And I could for the most part, but there were not enough colors in the Milles Fleures selection to match all the colors in the Wyvern design. So I set about ordering the missing thread colors... but this is very challenging when you don't have a chart to compare the colors across different manufacturers. And the availability of the silk threads here in the USA is hindered by the fact that they are imported so not all stores carry all or any of them. And trusting to the pictures of on-line ordering is also risky... they even don't recommend using the colors shown as a guide! You need to know the number of the color you want... which I have no clue about! So I have been ordering anyway... a kind of thread roulette... I assume I will eventually use the silk even if not right away on this project. For the Wyvern, I got lucky and could use two of the darker blues I ordered for the sky. You can see I have finished stitching that part in the above photo. I am still waiting for a blue-green thread, a purple thread, and could not use the only orange-ish color I ordered as it was too dark for the highlights on the Wyvern's scales. So meanwhile, I have started stitching the frame for the Lion cushion...

 

This is another of Candace Bahouth's designs.... 

one of a series of astrological-inspired motifs. 

And one of the things I love about these designs is that

 she actually designed them with glittery

 metallic gold thread for the stars and the Wyvern's fire! 

I didn't have to change that at all!

 

And yet again, I don't have enough colors of gold

 to complete the design as is....

 so I have ordered some more.

 We will see if they will work!

But the real color challenge I wanted to talk about was

 the still undecided background color for the

 Chinese Dragon Carpet golden border motif!

And I am not entirely to blame for this challenge, even though I did drastically change the kit design by adding the dragons as a central motif. The design had specified two colors of gold for the border that were so close to each other in hue that you could not tell there was a pattern at all! When I added the central motif I used the picture on the kit, showing a lovely gold band, as inspiration for the gold octagon surrounding the dragons. Only to discover once I started stitching that gold band that it was supposed to be a beautiful golden Greek key pattern,not a solid gold band. And in order to decide what color would work best for the background of that key pattern, I started stitching small "samples" along the side of the silk mesh.

I had shown sample of the options I tried so far... a paler gold background.... (bottom) the kit threads as specified (next above) the cream background (third from bottom) the dark blue (fourth up) and the navy blue (top option). And by then I had realized I really needed to include the dark blue outlines for this band in order to get the real effect. I had not intended to try the pale sky blue that is the background of sky with the dragons in the center.....(a piece of the design added by me) because I was pretty sure it would not work at all. But when a Dear Reader suggested I could try it, I thought that this would be a great example to use to show how some colors just do not play nicely with each other! Rather than just try to describe why... they are too similar to each other in intensity (or tone, both being mid-range) and too dissimilar in hue (they just cancel each other out!)..... I should show why by stitching a sample.... 

 

Can you even see the stitched sample above the navy blue one.....?

 It was extremely difficult to get it to show up in photos!

 

 

Here you can see I am adding the blue edges to all the samples...

 

Here is a closer view of the samples.... 

trying to get them in enough light... 

but I swear, the gold and the sky blue just swallow each other up! 

 

Here it is even closer... 

and you can see that the design and the background are too similar in intensity,

 neither one dominates, so they just cancel each other.

 And viewed from a distance, they combine to make a slightly green hue....!

So you can see my dilemma, Dear Readers,

 in needing to choose an alternate color than the kit specifies, 

without changing the original design color balance.... 

I am still undecided. So I am stitching the parts I do know first! 

 

Maybe by the time I am done with the outer borders, Dear Readers,

 I will have answered the question of which Color to use...