Collecting Color | Toning with Complements

Cyn of Riverdog Prints has a meetup called “Collecting Color” that’s all about…you guessed it, color! Last week, I made a set of nesting baskets in some custom colors my client had selected earlier in the summer. When I was working on the pieced strip for the basket, I was worried about the colors. The light lavender and blues kind of had a “baby” feel:

But after seeing that I had plenty of variety in value, I decided to push on.

Once I finished the baskets, I was really happy with the color:
Why? What made the difference?

I think it’s because of the brown undertones in osnaburg that I used as the main fabric. Brown/beige has an orange undertone, and I think this helped tone down blues, because orange is the complement of blue.

I don’t know if that’s the reason…but, I know the osnaburg took these colors from sweet to sophisticated!

 

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