Color for Embroidery Author:Mary D. Shipp 'Color for Embroidery' was written specifically for those stitchers who want to learn more about color. Part I presents a fair amount of formal instruction about different color theories, because theory cannot be avoided in a discussion of color. We begin with a brief overview of the history of color theory. Several chapters are spent defining a... more »nd explaining important terms ad their relationship to each other. Other topics covered are color harmonies and color contrasts.
Part II deals with applying color theory to embroidery. The section begins with a chapter on special color effects. We continue with a description of the fundamentals of good design, especially as related to color. In the remaining chapters, students will learn how to change a few colors in a design to fit their own needs, how to completely redo a color scheme. and how to create from scratch a color scheme for an original design.
Given normal eyesight, everyone has the ability to make color decisions on their own. Many people are nervous about doing so, because they have been told that color theory is a very difficult topic with a large number of rules and complicated formulas. This was once the case: the concept of rules for color goes back to a previous century, when there was a society-wide compulsion to analyze and classify many aspects of science and life. Educators truly believed that their role was to teach students which color combinations were beautiful and which were not. Forgotten was the concept, "True beauty is in the eye of the beholder."
The prevailing idea today, among those who have studied color is: there is no combination of colors that is right or wrong, in and of itself.
It is when you don't like a particular color choice or combination of colors that knowing color theory will be of use to you. Color theory will help you move from "I don't like it" to "Here's what I can change so that I do like it." Knowledge is power. It is my aim to give you that knowledge. The color choices you make will then truly be yours.