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Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Dye, Dye, Dye.


So there I am, in the utility room, dyeing away. Why is it when you're up to your arms in coloured water, gloves and mask on, someone always either comes to the door or phones? Or both. Usually to offer you cheaper insurance, or a bank loan... sigh. As was the case today.

I didn't have all that much time to dye today, just as well that the made up dyes can go in the fridge and wait for Saturday. I found myself dyeing oranges and reds, having made some turquoise cloth the day before (which worked out quite nicely, as it happens, or it seems to have done, so far; some of it is in the queue for overdyeing. Reds and oranges, particularly yellows, are not my favourite colours. Well, red and yellow aren't. I use them, but I find them difficult to work with. Orange, though, I find to be energising, but not overly so. Yellow, though, seems hard and harsh to me...yet today, I find myself making up more yellow, planning to make some single coloured cloth.

I went through a phase of reading quite a bit about colour healing, the idea that colour can help us to face all sorts of different problems, physical and mental. And there are examples of that working, for instance, in Edinburgh, the police experimented with holding cells painted pale pink and pale blue. They became rather popular with the 'regular' inmates, apparently...oh, just take me to the pink cell, I'll be all right then... Personally, I admire houses with bold colour schemes, but wouldn't want to live in them. Light is really important to me, and I want it to reflect off the walls, rather than be soaked into them. Yet I work with dramatic colours, all the time.

But I do wonder about that yellow...why do I want to work with yellow???

6 comments:

Val said...

Yellow is energising. It is the colour of the sun and in the winter yellow can be really appealing even if you arn't a yellow person. I like the piece you've shown here.

artmixter said...

Thank you. I've been playing around with dyed cloth plus acrylic paint for a while now. It's a small, journallish sized piece, I think it's fun

Anonymous said...

Yellow is said to be the colour of optimism. Perhaps you're looking for some brightness on the horizon, which fits with what valeri said earlier.

Sarah Ann Smith said...

I'm always susrprised by folks' reactions to yellow...it is my favorite color! Not harsh, not envious, not anything negative. To me it is warm, sunny, luscious, the promise of a daffodil in spring...it gives spark and life to just about anything to which it is added. Yes, there can be ugly yellows...dingy, dirty, even ochre-ish, but they have a place, too......

Here's to some happy yellow in your life!

thelmasmith said...

up to your arms in coloured water, gloves and mask on, someone always either comes to the door

Well, marion, one can always go to the door, fully so protected, in their best distracted crone manner muttering, plague house, plague house

thelmasmith said...

'twould serve the salesmen right, I think.