The Value of Saturation - Off the Wall Friday

As I prodded my way through the second in my Fall series (yes only one session in my studio this week - grrrrr) - I was struck by the fabrics that were finally chosen for the piece.  So many of them I had dyed myself - most this summer using my red solo cup method.  And were they the pretty ones . . . the ones that you loath to cut into ???  No!  Of course, the ones that are getting used are the butt muddy uglies   that you take one look at when they come out of the dryer and say - OMG - what am I going to use that for????

That got me thinking  - why?  Why were these supposed uglies fitting in so well with the pretty princesses of the quilt.  And the answer - of course -is that every princess needs her ladies in waiting! Or in other words it was their level of saturation that fit so well.  What is saturation you ask?  Well, saturation is that color theory term  that commonly gets all muddied up with Value.  Saturation (also called intensity) is basically the brightness of a color.  Now that's not the light or dark of it - but rather how pure or muddy the color is.  So to change the value of a color you add white or black.  To change the saturation of a color you add grey or the complementary color.   Ohhh and the thing about both value and saturation though is both are relative to what lies around them. So it can be a bit tricky!

Its easier to see what I mean when you look at color wheels

Pure Color Wheel                                                   Saturated Color Wheel
















Now I'm not opposed to using a constant level of saturation in a quilt - as my quilt Praise Hands proves.  But there I used it for a reason - I thought the intense - saturated colors invoked the mood I was trying to portray  - Joy!  Not to mention I wanted to convey the intensity of praise. 

But I would say a good rule is to mix your intensities - I usually try to get 1/4th to 1/3rd of a quilt in a different intensity.  For me it gives the eye a rest  - it gives the piece tension  - it adds a bit of variation - ohhh and yeah - it uses up those ugly fabrics that you thought you were going to have to over dye.


Anyways - my allergy meds are kicking in - I'm getting used to the time change and with your amazing encouragement last week - I'm feeling more creative.  Maybe I can kick my candy crush addiction and spend more time in the studio this week.


So what have you been up to creatively??