Friday 5 September 2014

Under An African Sky - Choosing Colours

If you are thinking of tatting Jane McLellan's Under An African Sky doily, you may be wondering what colours to use. I rummaged through my Size 20 thread stash and got four palettes together. 

Sun - Sky - Trees - Animals - Earth

Palette A - Flora solid
two shades of green for the trees

Palette B - Lizbeth all variegated


Palette C - Lizbeth mixed bright


Palette D - Lizbeth mixed muted


Let me know what you think. 


See the choice of colours for this doily by Jane, Helen 1,2 & 3 and Ari.

We will begin the doily on 1st October 2014. 
This will give you time to order threads, if necessary.


11 comments:

  1. Ooh, I like that palette D!

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  2. I like the way the previous doilies look with the variegated threads. So, I'm voting for Palette B. Palette D also looks interesting.

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  3. Not sure my comment went through the first try. I'm repeating it here:

    Unfortunately I can't join the challenge at this time, but I would definitely choose the solid threads and bright colors of Palette A.

    Jane came up with a very unique design - love the animals represented around the edge!

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  4. I like pallette A because the solid colours will show off the details better than any of the others.

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  5. Choosing a palette is probably the toughest step in any project for me ;-/

    There are many considerations when choosing colors : what is the project going to be used for, by whom, how would each element look, what does one want to highlight in the pattern, & so on. So I won't give a definitive answer to your Q - only my personal thoughts - & let you decide for yourself (you have a much better choice than I) :-)

    I would reject B outright. All variegated will become too 'crowded' for the pattern elements to really emerge.

    A is a conservative, but good option. More traditional & risk-free. Can't see you going wrong here, but nothing extraordinary either - no signature statement.

    D seems to be too similar & very subtle, very understated. I wonder how adjoining elements will appear? It will, however, seem like a composite doily.

    C seems like the right mix of solid & variegated; traditional & modern ; ... I wonder if the red was a bit more on the brownish side - something a little darker ... then I would consider this the best palette of the lot.

    Hope some of my thoughts help ... :-)

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  6. Dear Umintsuru, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, who are we to advise you in colors? But if you insist,..
    The problem with African colors is that the colors of he earth are rather dark and muffled, whereas the colors of the sky and waters are very light and shining. Quite difficult to combine!
    If you don't mind me saying so, I find your color combinations too light, A is my best choice if you make the yellow darker and that lighter green as well.

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  7. I already chose my colors and ordered them from Handy Hands and received them and started to load my shuttles ,lol . I have also been practicing blocking and the connected rings. Do you have a start date yet ? Looking forward. The only other tatting event I did was the TIAS 2014 with Jane Eborall. It was my first shuttle tatting experience. I did really good at it and I learned many techniques.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Denise,
      Start date is 1st October 2014. I hope that will give others enough time to get the right threads for the challenge. I'm going to try to tat the block animals with the Lizbeth zebra thread to see how it would look.

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    2. Wow ! That's a great idea, the zebra thread should make it really gorgeous.

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  8. Oh and I like palette A, it matches the theme of the doily. Mine is very similar to the designers suggestions. I read in the pattern what each color symbolizes for her, I wanted to honor her for the design and the color suggestions. I even checked out photos of Africa when I was deciding on my color palette .

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  9. Thank you all for your comments and opinions on the thread colours. I think each of you have got a point. Everyone's preference is different. I want to keep to Jane's colours but with a twist. You will have to wait to see which colours I chose.

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