Last week I mentioned some of the many different types and weights of thread that are available for embroidery. Today I would like to talk about the power and importance of color in embroidery. To the left you can see a color wheel which is a great tool for choosing colors that will work well to acheive the result you desire.
An extreme example of this is the Op Art movement of the 60's in which opposite colors or what are called complementary colors, such as purple and yellow or red and green, or orange and blue were used together to create visual tension. The tension caused by placing two opposite colors together combined with spiral and geometric repeated patterns actually made the artwork look as though it was moving or pulsating.
When you are designing embroidery you need to take into consideration the color of the fabric that you will be embroidering upon and think about the effect which will be achieved when the the thread color interacts with it.
If you want a design that is soothing and pleasing to the eye choose colors which are adjacent to the fabric color. Conversely if you want your design to stand out from the base fabric choose colors on the opposite side of the color wheel.
I know all of this is very elementary but sometimes it is the logical and simple aspects of embroidery design that we overlook. That is why when I was working on Compositions embroidery design software, I made sure that you were prompted to choose your fabric color before you actually start designing your embroidery. To see how this works step by step go to. http://www.kenparsonsdesigns.com/flash/webpreview.php