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.