2013 Maiwa Textile Symposium

True Colours - Developing a Personal Palette

Carol Soderlund

$325 includes 75 lab fee

November 4, 5, 6, 2013 - Class Limit 16

Maiwa East: 1310 Odlum Drive, Vancouver BC

For the dyer, the many choices of available colours can lead to confusion and disappointment in colour outcomes. This class will help students choose the pure colour that is suitable for developing a personal palette. Carol has dyed over 80 individual palettes which she will share with you through slide presentations, discussions, and hands-on dyeing. Brilliant yellows, passionate purples, rich reds, astounding blues, and soothing greens as well as the many necessary neutrals will be achieved through mixing using Procion MX dyes.

This class will focus on developing skill in intuitive colour-mixing based primarily on training the eye and understanding the relationship between colours. Students will come to an understanding of warm and cool contrasts and will learn how to choose a personal palette of pure reds, yellows, and blues from which all hues can be mixed. In addition the class will learn not only how to dye saturated, brilliant colours and avoid mud, but also how to create interesting complex neutrals (Bring on the mud puddles!). And they will learn how to shade from value to value and hue to hue.

Students will dye from 8 to 10 yards of cotton using low-water immersion techniques. On the first day, we will develop concepts through lecture and discussion and do some exercises to get familiar with the pure hues. On the days following, we will dye yardage using low-water immersion techniques, resulting in both solid-coloured and multi-coloured cloth, and explore the possibilities of layering colour to enrich the palette.

This class is suitable for all levels of experience, for both those who have had Carol’s class Colour Mixing for Dyers and those who have not.

Instructor Bio

Carol Soderlund’s works have been exhibited nationally and internationally since 1985 in such venues as Visions and American Quilting Society shows and have received numerous awards, including Best of Show at the 1989 International Quilt Festival and Best Use of Color at the Pennsylvania National Quilt Exhibition 2000. She has taught colour, fabric dyeing, colour-mixing techniques, and quilting throughout North America and is currently working on a book on these subjects. 

“My work is primarily driven by a passion for colour interactions, the illusions they create, the luminosity they can bring to a surface. I love creating my own palette of fabric through painting, dyeing, and other surface design processes including discharge, shibori, stamping, screening, and foiling. My goal in design is to have a piece that intrigues the viewer at first glance and then continues to reveal surprises upon every inspection.”  www.carolsoderlund.com