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EGA Seminar – Class 2 – Understanding Color Relationships: Luster and Luminosity with Patricia Goaley

My second class, a two-day class, was Understanding Color Relationships: Luster and Luminosity with Patricia Goaley.

Class description from EGA’s website: Using simple forms, we will experiment with advanced color relationships using various colors of number 8 pearl cotton and 18 count canvas and 28 count overdyed linen. This low stress class will play with luminosity and luster over 2 days. If you have overdyed linen that you are at a loss how to use, bring it and look at the future possibilities. There will be some choice in color chosen for fibers and foundation materials. Tricks will be discussed for improving overall appearance of your needlework and increasing the intensity of the color relationships.

I looked up the definition for luster. It is a gentle sheen or soft glow, especially that of a partly reflective surface. And, luminosity is the relative brightness of something.

Learning more about color and low stress sounded good!

In our first day, we made our own grayscale and hue color chart.

We added value with color (red example below) and density of stitches (green example below).

Then, we stitched to watch the interaction of color as you add each color.

The luminosity is created with the lightest values and the luster will appear as reflected light becoming more evident when a significant value difference is incorporated. Because I am working on the gray canvas, I added a black border to make it pop (after dinner and a delicious Espresso Martini). This isn’t fully stitched yet. Does the bottom one look a little washed out compared to the one with the back border?

Thanks to the other students who pitched in to distribute Day 2 class materials. Lots of stuff!

These were my morning paintings – masterpieces!  We went from black and white to color. We had QTips and paint brushes to play with. I could have done this all afternoon.

But, it was time to move onto weaving. Look at this teeny, tiny loom! The fork was used to push down the threads.

This was my afternoon’s weaving project. At one point, Pat mentioned that you can stitch on the weave you produce. So, I am going to trash this and restart it. My tension got tighter in the middle which is the same thing that happened to me with the larger loom.

Working on linen as described in the class description would have been nice but getting to weave again was fun and let me learn that Surface embroidery could be combined with weaving. A fun mixed media project. I’m thinking about what to do!

Pat gave me an entirely unexpected gift bag for being Class Angel. The Bohin needlecase has 40 different needles in a variety of sizes. Orange is my favorite flavor of hard candy. And, can always use a notebook.

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