The problem with loving color is – it can take over.

I always feel better when I have clean surfaces and open spaces to work. BUT the minute they are clear? If I’m doing my silk dying art- the surfaces are covered again in the shortest amount of time. And here I am now – with surfaces coated.

I’ve done my silk art for years. It’s been ever since my blood work showed me I had too much of what I attributed to the ingredients of my oil paints. That was in – maybe 1988? or so. I switched to “nontoxic” silk dyeing. The dyes are made in France – or WERE made in France. The company stopped making their colors for dye around 10 years ago – if I run out of a color, it’s gone.
But in the many years of dyeing cloth, I have remnants. And these, in themselves, are full of possibilities. There is lots to play with when I think of “What’s next?”

I have several ideas but, until they happen, are still shifting. And I know, the idea in my mind might be completely transformed by the actual colors I see – and how they move me as I set up AND while working.

I had this one small piece I was working on. I thought I had cut a piece too small – it needed to match the surrounding colors. I searched and searched for a matchng piece of cloth to cut a shape, to “fix” the mistake of my measurement. I cut a new piece, just the right size, put it in the place of the one that was too small.

BUT what I found was: color mattered more than size. I had the right size but – darnit! – the color was not EXACT. I was much more disturbed by a mismatched color – even if it was slightly off – than a size, that I thought was significantly off.

My eyes were happier compensating for the size difference; but color?

Color matters.

Which makes me laugh. Because a MESS of color can make me feel so good.

But mismatched color can be upsetting.

Go figure.

Here’s my mess. Give those color charts some TLC with the iron and then

Dive in!

More color….