18 February 2017

Alchemy, Part 1: Color Conversions

Few things in this world are as transformative as color. If you want to better understand what I mean by that statement, watch a few of these videos of colorblind people seeing color for the first time using special glasses. And be sure to have the Kleenex on standby. 

Color perception and preference are unique to each of us, and our preferences probably have a lot to do with our perception. Color acuity tests  can give us insight into which colors we perceive accurately and which colors we have difficulty with. 

One of the things I love the most about stitching is the freedom to play with color.  Modern stitchers have an almost unbelievable range of color to experiment with in both threads and fabrics.  A thousand stitchers could stitch the same design a thousand different ways. To me, that creative freedom is invaluable, and it's why color conversions are one of my favorite stitchy things. I know there are some stitchers who feel that changing a design is somehow disrespectful of the designer, or who don't understand why someone would buy a design they intend to change. I wouldn't try to argue anyone out of either of those views, but I would say this: being comfortable with changing colors or design elements in a chart makes me more likely to buy a designer's work. I never dismiss a design because I don't like the colors used.

Over the next few days, I'll be showing a bunch of my color conversions. If you've been reading my blog for a while, you'll recognize many of them, as I've already blogged all of them. However, for this series of posts, I've rephotographed my finishes along with the original models to better show what a difference changing colors can make. These are not right/wrong photographs, or even before/after photographs; I like to think of them as chocolate/vanilla photographs... both good and just a matter of preference!

      My first example is my WIP of the Plum Street Samplers Twelve Days of Christmas sampler. The original, which you can see here, was designed to be stitched in three colors. I'm using... more than three colors.
    This is Just Nan's Snowfire Christmas. I changed the floss, bead, and fabric colors, and converted it to my wedding sampler.

    Here's a Christmas ornament from the 2015 Just Cross Stitch Christmas Ornament issue. Mr. Wonderful chose it, but wanted more traditional Christmas colors.

    A blue-to-green conversion of an old Passione Ricamo freebie.

    Another blue-to-green conversion of Hinzeit's Warm Wish.

    And here's a little project that really doesn't even count as a color conversion, but I'm throwing it in to show how very small changes can really transform a design. In this case, I wanted a wintry look, so I just stitched snow instead of grass, used a wintry blue fabric, and added a snowflake. 
Come on back tomorrow for more color conversions, and stick around this week. I'll be talking about what I like to call "renovations" and I'll also have a few suggestions for getting comfortable with changing designs.

11 comments:

  1. Super post, Honeybee! After seeing your "colors" for the PSS piece, I added additional colors to mine. I do like how you customized the colors in your wedding/anniversary sampler. My favorite is your "wintery" little fox. It is much more appealing to me than the original. Enjoy your weekend!

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  2. I look forward to seeing the colours you are using for 12 days of Christmas as I really like them. Happy Stitching.

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    1. Clare, if you click on the picture of this WIP in the right sidebar, you'll see all my posts about this sampler, including colors used for each block.

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  3. That's really interesting! I'm one of those who would never change the colour in a design (mostly due to laziness/lack of confidence) but seeing how you've altered these designs to your own taste is really inspiring! The Fox in particular looks achievable and very effective. I would be interested in more information, particularly how you approach a conversion. Thank you for sharing this.

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    1. Justine, here is my post from a couple of years ago:

      http://thecopperfox.blogspot.com/2014/12/how-to-do-color-conversion.html

      I'll be revisiting the topic in this series of posts, so stay tuned!

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  4. I love your conversion of the Passione ricamo freebie. Is the freebie still available (not on there website it seems)?

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    1. I don't think so, at least I haven't been able to find it. You might try contacting the designer to see if she would consider re-posting it.

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  5. Yes ma'am! A girl after my own heart! Knowing that I can and will change floss, fabric, even design elements - makes more MORE willing to purchase a chart. Make it my own, how I want it. That 12 days of Christmas is pure boring in original 3 colors. Glad you changed it.

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  6. Very informative post. I've been considering this a lot here lately myself, and am going to address this later on this summer with a project I'm working on. I love that you are giving stitchers something to think about. It can start small, as you've shown very well in some of your examples, and one can work up from there.

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  7. I like changing colors and the design to make it more my own too. Love all the changes you made especially the 12 days of Christmas. It truly comes to life with your colors. Love it! All of your changes were so well done and came out great. Thank you for a great post. RJ

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  8. I love the colour conversions that you have made.

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