When was the first time that man (and woman) fell in love with colour? Was it when they first saw the green leaves, the blue skies or the multi hued flowering blossoms? Why do colours attract us? Why do they make us feel warm and happy whereas a lack of colour makes for a gloomy appearance? These questions and more are the reasons why I fell in love with colour theory a decade ago and teach it to this day. Most of my blog readers know that I have a penchant for colour. I love combining contrasting hues together and find happiness in the strangest of combinations. But do you know that I was not always like this?
My “Colourful journey”
As I kid I loved to match my accessories to my clothes and the whole look would be monochromatic. As I grew older my colour palette became smaller and smaller. College made me lose confidence in my colour pairing skills. So by the time I graduated college, I wore just 5-6 colours including tints, tones and shades of hues and neutrals. Even today, my wardrobe majorly comprises of blues, dark reds and offwhites. But I infuse it with greens and pink whenever possible. I regained trust in my colour abilities because of jewellery making. I learned by listening to what customers want. Trying to understand aesthetics other than mine, I believe, has led me to become a better designer. So I a doing an entire colour based series using the Kolam III collection to share what knowledge I have about colour. I am going to be talking about Colour harmonies beginning with Monochromatic Pulli Kolam necklaces in this post. Do take a look.
Colour Harmony
Colour harmonies are set ways to mix and match colour. They are create based on the colour wheel and help create unified and harmonious outcome in design regardless of the category of the design. The colour harmonies are seven in number. They are monochromatic, Analogous, Complimentary, Split Complementary, Triadic, Tetradic, and achromatic. It is not always possible to design with just a hue of a single colour. We need both lights and darks in it. Hence the harmonies take into account tints(hue + white), tones(hue + gray), and shades(hue + black) of a hue as well.
Monochromatic means tints, tones and shades of a single chroma or a packet of light that corresponds to one particular colour. If a palette is only made up of only black, white, and/or gray then its achromatic not monochromatic as black and white do not have any “chroma” in them. My gray earrings from the Pulli kolam earrings post, is an example of the Achromatic palette in my Kolam III series. A monochromatic piece of jewellery can have any colour as accent in it. Accents create interest and support the main entity in the design.
Monochromatic Pulli Kolam necklaces for sale
Let me begin with a monochromatic (single hue) necklace in cooling blues. This is a very unorthodox colour for kolam to be represented in. But in the last few months, I got many enquiries for blue coloured necklaces that I made not one but two blue kolam necklaces.
Azure Leaf
The colour azure comes from the mineral Azurite which is a type of Copper Carbonate. It is a mid tone blue and can be easily lightened or darkened to add subtle depth. The use of the colour Azure in European art (oil paintings) can be found in the colorlex website. In this necklace, I have used a novelty leaf bezel for my pendant. The fabric beads are made using leftover bits of Khun fabric that I used for my parampare collection. The bead mix includes textured metal, faceted and fluted glass, ceramic and both glass and acrylic crystals. This necklace is for sale and comes with complimentary earrings. It is my personal favourite in the entire collection.
Cerulean Embroidery
Did you know that Cerulean is not just one hue? It includes the colours used in the first and second necklaces in this post along with dark and really pale versions of blue. The Cerulean sweater from Devil wears Prada was a bright blue. The Pantone colour of the year 2000 is a drab light gray blue. My cerulean is more towards cobalt with a hint of green. To make this necklace interesting, I have incorporated a lot of textures in it. The bead mix includes fabric, terracotta clay, regular glass and lampwork beads, along with coated crystals. The pendant has a kolam pattern, that can also be found in Kutch embroidery. It is fascinating that a motif from South India is also found (without the dots) in the west end. I remember writing about it in this post on the Celtic knot connection in 2012.
The necklace is for sale and comes with complimentary earrings.
Pink and Purple
The combination of Pink and purple is technically is not monochromatic. However, the pink that I have used in this necklace has a bit of light purple in it. The colours gray and copper-bronze are my accents. Once again, the necklaces is filled with textures of different materials of beads. This necklace is sold.
Rustic Brown
The beauty of Tamil Nadu’s culture lies in ability to accommodate extremes of both splendid vibrancy as well as rustic subtlety. Our Kolams also mimic the same. On one hand we have brightly coloured line based pulli kolams that look like a rangoli carpet. On the other hand white chalk powder dots on a muddy floor. This Rustic brown necklace represents the simplicity of the latter. Unlike the other pieces, I have used more metal here. The brass I feel stays within the monochrome palette and yet adds value to the design. What do you think? This necklace is reserved for a client.
This necklace was particularly difficult to photograph, hence the close up so that you can see the pendant clearly. This brings us to the end of this post on Monochromatic Pulli Kolam necklaces. In the next part of the series, I will focus on either analogous or complimentary colour scheme. Keep guessing, until then. Also, Do not forget to look at the Colourful Pulli Kolam III necklaces for sale in this older post.
If you liked reading this post and would like to read more about colour theory, please share your views and suggestions in the comments.
I hope you found it interesting
Cheers
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