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Believe it or not I shot these these purple and aqua berries last week. I love them with sharp greens and grey tones. I don’t think of purple and aqua as being fall colors, but after looking around I started to see similar color combinations. I’ve been fooling around with fuzzy shots to represent color. Good? Bad?
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Tags: aqua, color inspiration, color palettes, Green, purple
Crossing Maine, New Hampshire and home to Vermont on our way back from vacation Sunday was so beautiful it made my heart sing! The sky was the most perfect azure blue and the fields the most dazzling emerald green. The swamp maples and sumac are on fire, and oranges and golds are creeping up the mountains.
While our state was trashed by Irene, and some roads are still in marginal condition, it is worth getting out and admiring the spectacular color whether by foot, bicycle, car etc.
Stop someplace and have lunch or buy apples or spend the night. Every penny spent in our state will have a trickle down effect on those impacted by the storm.
And hey, if you’re slowed down by temporary road surfaces or have to “go around” because a bridge is out, it’s all part of the journey. And who knows what you might discover if you take a detour?
Large Leaf Ball Over Water by Sally J. Smith
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Tags: color inspiration, rainbow
Monday, the day after Hurricane Irene swept through my state and Vermonters were reeling and digging out from the disastrous flooding and devastation she caused, I was safely at home. I found it hard to fathom how so many towns, villages, farms and homes had been ravaged by the storm. The inconvenience of having no power, a slightly washed out, but passable, road and a wet basement at our house was trivial compared to the major losses of my fellow Vermonters.
My husband’s beat up “job site” battery powered radio urged everyone to stay away from devastated areas until they could be assessed. Feeling helpless, I brought the radio out into the garden with me. I pulled weeds and listened all day to the non-stop updates of what was happening all across the state; homes and covered bridges, crops and cattle swept away, mountain communities isolated when roads and bridges were destroyed and power and phone lines were downed, road closings and evacuations, shelter locations, people volunteering muscle and machinery and the heroic and selfless deeds of neighboring Vermonters.
I listened, gardened, and mourned for Vermont. I clipped my annual poppy seed pods and saved the seeds. I find their shape irresistible and started fooling around with them on a sheet of orangey paper. Here are a few arrangements that I came up with.
Vermonters will be cleaning up and suffering from this storm for some time to come. If you’re inclined – and I hope you ARE – to help out, here are a number of ways to get involved – even if you don’t live in Vermont. THANKS so much!
Text FOODNOW to 52000 to donate $10 to Vermont Foodbank. The Foodbank will turn each donation into $60 for families in need.
You can donate to The United Way’s Vermont Disaster Relief Fund online, or buy sending a donation to your local United Way. Just make sure your donation is marked for the “Vermont Disaster Relief Fund”.
You can also donate to the American Red Cross of Vermont and the New Hampshire Valley. The Red Cross set up shelters immediately after Irene hit for flooded-out families to stay in.
The Preservation Trust of Vermont is taking donations to help rebuilding and cleanup efforts for the historic buildings and bridges damaged by Irene. Make a donation on their site and be sure to note “Hurricane Relief” in the Comments section.
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Tags: color inspiration, color palettes, Irene, orange, Vermont
There’s something wonderful about being given a gift that is imaginatively and personally wrapped. The excitement of discovering what lies within a package sheathed in unusual paper with crisply folded corners, a pretty bow and card is a pleasure.
I recently received a small present lovingly wrapped in handmade paper from Nepal and tied with a simple brown cord. My friend made the card to match. I was delighted by the colors and textures of the wrapping and am saving the bits and pieces for some to-be-decided future project. Her creative wrapping enhanced my experience of opening the package, and has gone on to inspire one of my color palettes!
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Tags: color inspiration, color palettes, handmade, Pink, yellow
Purple and orange color combinations usually conjure up visions of team sport uniforms.Ugh! When looking into my garden for color inspiration I find this is far from true, and am delighted by these two shades used in the same color palette.
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To see more of my color palettes click here.
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Tags: color inspiration, color palettes, orange, purple
Tags: bicycles, color inspiration, rainbow
Summer is whizzing by. The Swiss chard in my garden is ready for picking. The colors of the stems against the glossy green leaves are intense! I love playing with them against a variety of colored backgrounds.
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Tags: color inspiration, color palettes, Green, vegetables
Victoria Finlay’s Color: A Natural History of the Palette is a great summer read for armchair travelers and color enthusiasts alike. It transports the reader to remote places around the globe via a rainbow of adventures as the author intrepidly searches for the origins of natural pigments and dyes.
Finlay was obsessed with color as a child and when her father took her to Chartres cathedral and told her that people were no longer able to make the blue in the stained glass she decided it was time to find out the secret of that particular blue and other secrets of color.
In Chile Finlay discovers how Carmine Red is made from the blood of cochineal beetles. In India she tracks down an old legend that claims Indian Yellow comes from the urine of cows whose diet is comprised exclusively of mangoes. She looks into the deadly Schlee’s Green, which may have been the cause of Napolean’s death. In Taliban occupied Afghanistan she visits the Sar-e-Sang mine to see for herself the prized and bluest lapis on earth – a color that when combined with oils renders the perfect hue for the Virgin Mary’s robes and heaven. From her we learn the secrets of the incomparable blood red varnish Stradivarius used to finish his violins; that mommia or “mummy” is a brown pigment made from the remains of Egyptian mummies; how saffron is harvested in Spain and why red ocher is sacred among Australian Aborigines.
Color is broken down by chapters titled – ocher, black, brown, white, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet – and each is a vivid travelogue filled with fables, facts and anecdotes about the history and science of the colors found in the spectrum.
Finlay’s travel experiences are honestly told and are equally as interesting as her natural history observations and discoveries. I’ll never look at color the same way after reading her book.
Available at your local bookseller
Tags: color inspiration
There’s nothing like the taste of the succulent Amish peaches discovered last Saturday morning at the farmer’s market in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The handspun and dyed yarns across the way echoed the peach’s tones. And the daylilies now in bloom share their creamy shades too.
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Tags: color inspiration, color palettes, peach
Between 1935 and 1943 the WPA’s (Work Progress Administration) Federal Arts Project printed over two million posters in 35,000 different designs to stir the public’s imagination for education, theatre, health, safety and travel. Many of the Posters were for our National Parks. The artists and actual dates of production are unknown. The original posters, distributed to local Chambers of Commerce, were produced for internal marketing only and not for sale.
I love the WPA style and vibrant colors used in the posters. What better time of year to highlight National Parks, than summer? So here are a few posters that inspired me to create color palettes. To learn more about the posters or buy them, click here.
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Sleeping Under The Stars
Tags: color inspiration, color palettes
Even when I’m working with paper and paint textiles seem to be on my mind. This little group of monoprints was created by using paper strips woven together.
The top two prints are impressions of weaving and were made by inking and weaving paper strips together and placing them on the plate to print.
For the next two, I cut up old prints that I wasn’t satisfied with into strips and woven them together. You can see that I’d experimented with printing knit fabric in these two. I like the combination of knit and woven in the same piece.
The mouthwatering sherbert-y shades of mango, raspberry, citrus, watermellon and banana give them a cheerful and summery feel.
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Click here For more Color Palette inspiration or here to become a Poppy Gall Design facebook fan.
Tags: color inspiration, color palettes, Pink, yellow
Here are a few Americana inspired color palettes to celebrate the 4th of July. How are you enjoying the holiday?
I’ll be savoring my mom’s homemade cheesecake!
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Are you taking your kids fishing?
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I would never miss fireworks on the 4th!
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Who’s on a road trip?
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Anyone having a lobster bake?
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Are tag sales and flea markets your passion?
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Tags: blue, color inspiration, color palettes, red, white
I’m captivated by the color and texture of these sea urchins piled in an electric blue plastic tub. The urchin’s shape could inspire a new textile design!
For more color inspiration click here.
Tags: blue, color inspiration, color palettes
Those of you who have been following my color palette inspirations for a while already know about my fascination with rust. I was ecstatic while poking around The Raven’s Nest (a dwelling literally made of old metal) at seeing so many rusty colored shapes contrasting against other materials. The bright yellow-orange that runs through most of these palettes, seems to be the same color Icelanders paint their lighthouses. Here are a few of my favorites.
P.S. I hope you’re enjoying the longest day of the year. I for one, plan to enjoy every second of daylight today!
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Tags: color inspiration, color palettes, Iceland, rust
I’ve been fascinated by bicycle gear ratio charts since back in the days when racing bikes had only 10 speeds. I enjoy comparing the difference even a single tooth can make in the size of a gear.
The Chromatic Guide To Gear Ratios poster combines my passions for color, good design and gear ratios. Its design abandons the standard grid format and places the chart inside a chainring with spokes radiating from the center. It’s a pleasure to look at – even if you’re not interested in knowing what size gear you’re pushing.
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Tags: bicycles, color inspiration, poster
