Color... Culture... Meaning...

While my yard is in 'progress' (soaking in all the rain that's been falling), I've been thinking a lot about color and culture. Different societies use color in very different ways although there is a lot of similarity, too.
I came across this graph: http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/colours-in-cultures/
while looking at another of their graphs that a student had sent me! It's a wheel of cultures and colors by topic or emotion or issue. So - number 1 is Anger and Cultures A, B, G, & I all use red to reflect or express anger... these include Western/American (A), Japanese (B), Eastern European (G), and African (I) cultures. Anger is black for Hindu culture.
Interesting although I am curious as to the sources of information they used. They mention the website Color Matters http://www.colormatters.com/ but then I wonder what their sources are...

Restless

Do you know what it's like when you get so busy with mundane things that you feel like you're not doing anything? That makes me restless with respect to my fiber interests since I've not been successful at carving out enough time for them.
In any case, the back yard project has been slowly evolving but other things have taken its place.
More intriguing to me (the land will wait - it's resting...) is the meaning of color.
What does color mean to us?
Different cultures have different approaches to color as do different individuals. While nature provides us with an amazing palette of color, our eyes, brains, and perceptions create different impressions.

Back from hiatus - ready to plant!

I've been intentionally 'off-grid' lately - that makes it hard on the blog thing but one must unplug periodically.
We have a nice little backyard that is currently empty - I've been demo-ing what was there since it was time to clean it all out. There is a huge oak tree next door that shades part of the space but most of it does get sun either in the morning or in the afternoon.
I want to plant a weaver's garden (plus tomatoes) thus I'm in the process of identifying what I could plant in this environment.
Any ideas, suggestions, warnings?
Many types of bamboo are very useful for various things but they tend to take over and crowd out other plants. Flax?! Hmmm...

New Vision of the Cord Skirt

Ancient cord skirts from the Bronze Age were used to accentuate women's movements, particularly in fertility rituals. These remind me of codpieces for men - they certainly accentuate and call attention to the same general body area as do cord skirts on women.

As the use of codpieces disappeared, some say that neckties found their function as they also 'point' to the same area that the codpiece decorated. Is the necktie a codpiece that migrated upwards??!!

In thinking about clothing, fashion, and function, it occurs to me to create a neck-piece along the lines of the cord skirt.
Something swingy that moves when the wearer moves - something that both current and ancient in its uses. Yet something that doesn't necessarily look ancient (!)

The cultures that made cord skirts used braiding, twisted cords, and inkle or tablet woven bands.

Starting with basic weaving and Viking braiding (using loops & fingers - very portable), I created some little potential pendants - but the weight isn't right.
The Viking braids (hanging down) can be weighted with beads but the top square piece is too flimsy to hold it all. Unless I mount it on something, this ain't gonna work!! (And mounting it on something doesn't sound good - too bulky & too many 'parts'...)

Whew!

What happened to April?! As a teacher, the spring is my busiest time of year: papers to grade, reports to complete, hiring to do.. Not enough time for fiber, art, or nature!

That said, I have been fiddling around with various things.
Updating my father's genealogy has taken me into Viking and English history.
I just wrote a Sociology blog related to this issue and it's taken me into fiber history as well.
Evidently, the vikings were big on making braids and band weaving (inkle, card weaving, etc.) - techniques I've been playing with for years.
The Danish National Museum has a great online exhibition of cultural finds - including The Egtved Girl and her string/cord skirt (among other things). You can see all the detail of the clothing!
I'm not planning on making a cord skirt - but the idea is intriguing.
Hmmm...

Color Shifts in my creatures

Meet my little dragons! or Sea Horses! Birds?! or whatever they look like to you..
These are another result of my Simultaneous Contrast explorations.. I used the same green/blue for both, then used orange or red (the complement of the neighbor of green-blue) for my ply-splitting experiment..
I like the way the colors interact - and the way the creatures seem to be commiserating about something.
I may have created them but I not sure I speak their dialect since they haven't told me what they are!

The next photo is of their older cousin who started out as an initial "S" for me - but took on a life of its own.
In ply-splitting, you can pull on the threads - or not - as you pull them through, to shape what you're making into something quite unique.

Simultaneous Contrast, update

If you saw my earlier post about doing a project based on Simultaneous Contrast, you might have wondered what became of that?
I did finally get some things done that I'm happy with..

Here's my study in yellow/green - with braids for each original color (Yellow, Yellow-Green, and Green) and then with the near-complement on each side.. Thus Yellow with Red-Violet (makes the yellow more orange) and Yellow with Blue-Violet (which makes the yellow more green). Cool, huh!?

The Yellow-Green is with Red (more yellow) and with Violet (more green).
The Green is with Red-Orange (more yellow-green) and with Red-Violet (more blue)..
I think I got that right.. it does get confusing!
I wove all these into some black silk so that the colors would be framed in a bold way.

Working Holiday

Egads, where does the time go?

I've been offline far too long but I did get some things done!

This is my "Spectral Contrast" project - one of my Simultaneous Contrast items...

I've got monochromatic kumihimo braids woven into black silk - for each primary and secondary color - so that one can see what light and dark shades do to the colors. Although this is a tiny photo, you can see the effects..

These are 7 strand braids - moving from 4 dark/3 light to 4 light/3 dark in gradations.