So – here’s a thought…take an idea, and re-work it just a bit…keep the original framework, but perhaps change up the color palette, multiply the design, add a few personalized edits.
Here’s how that idea works with embroidery designs… This original watercolor painting had wonderful colors, a fresh look at a cluster of blue iris, and simple lines. I wanted to see how this would work for blending colors, because with embroidery threads, each thread is a different color, and blending colors requires applying layers that “peek” through each other. How different from the original medium of watercolors, where the colors swirl together, edges melt away, and dimension is added through use of lighter hues and darker shades!
My challenge was to use a limited palette of thread colors, but enhance the interplay of color and design. Once the design was simplified and the colors were identified, the next challenge was to create the embroidery. Much like a watercolor artist’s brushes, paints and paper, the design software accomplishes the technical part of getting the design “down on paper”. The final step is the transfer to the machine for stitching out onto lovely linen napkins, a sophisticated pillow, or designs to be added to a quilt.
Isn’t that a bit like nature? The lovely flowers – in the Spring, they burst forth in color, and are enjoyed in their natural setting, or arranged in a pretty vase to grace the dinner table. The blooms multiply their own beauty during the summer months – seed pods, rhizome buds, and bulb divisions – and in the Fall, they pull the covers over their heads for a long winter’s nap. In the Spring, there are more flowers, more colors, and more ways to capture the many beauties that Nature provides!
