Colour Challenge

Our groups' Colour Challenge is based upon the book ‘The Secret Lives of Colour’ by Kassia St Clair. It delves into the captivating tales behind 75 intriguing shades and hues, ranging from the brown that influenced battles, to the white guarding against the plague. Kassia St Clair explores the history of colours and their impact on fashion, politics, art, and war and the colourful tapestry of human civilization. We were each randomly allocated a colour to interpret in our own way.

Terre Verte
Terre Verte is a transparent colour of varying hues depending on its mineral make up.  It is also described as a ‘rather unloveable pigment’, which is hardly inspiring!

I’m playing with layers of green to reflect this idea of transparency.  Artists used to paint pink over Terre Verte to create the skin tones of Europeans, leaving a ghostly appearance when the pink layer faded.  I’ll be including pink, but in a more vibrant way.
Liz Maddock

Minium Orange.
This colour dates back to Medieval times and was used to create illuminated letters in ancient manuscripts.  My piece draws on this, and techniques I learnt in Claire Benn’s amazing “Write on” course, all about incorporating text in textile work.
Alison Livesley

Tyrian Purple
My colour was Tyrian Purple, the “dye” was obtained from a type of marine snail which was prevalent in the Mediterranean. At the height of its use it was worth more than its weight in gold.
The snails were killed to extract the pigment, and eventually their numbers began to shrink, until they finally were extinct. There is still a similar snail which also produces the pigment in an island off Mexico. However, it is reported that the snails are not killed, but “milked”. How can a snail be milked, I haven’t been able to find!
The colour varies from a purple to an intense red, depending on the conditions of treatment and weather. I used those two colours in my piece."
Amelia Leigh

Cobalt Blue.
I loosely based my piece on the Cobalt sky looking up through colourful washing lines in Venice. In the end I didn't take anything from the reference in the book.
Linda Hoddy

Blonde
It’s hard to conceive of Blonde as a colour in its own right. Usually, it’s a descriptor of something else. Wood perhaps or more obviously hair. And that’s what I went with - exploring textiles as hair.
Liz Howlett

Vermillion
My colour is Vermillion, a colour once as costly & precious as gold.  The inspiration for my piece comes from the Villa dei Misteri with its Vermillion walls and large window which looked out to the Gulf of Naples.
Sue Sherwood

Silver
Silver represents so many diverse ideas. It can be precious yet is also seen as a ‘runner-up’ colour to gold. It can be beautifully smooth, but often is highly textured. It can be seen as traditional, and yet has been used to symbolise the future (think 60’s fashion & space suits). I’ve used it to explore the textures of a well-lived life.
Sue Norgrove-Moore

Woad
An ancient source of blue, which actually ranges from almost purple to almost grey. After some experiments with the purple end of the spectrum I have returned to delve in the mid-blue subtleties it offers.
Jane Falls

Celadon
Celadon is both a colour and a glaze for Chinese porcelain ceramics made over the  centuries where small amounts of iron oxide in the glaze on firing, result in the varied hues.  The colour reminiscent of ‘woodland fog’ is a pale blue green which varies hugely from light to dark green and light to dark blue and ocres.    It is muted and understated and combines the tanquility and serenity of blue with the sense of growth and renewal of green. 

The inspiration for my Celadon piece comes from my interpretations of patterns and marks contained within a variety of Chinese celadon ceramics.
Sue Duncan

All the Colour Challenge pieces will be on display at Curious Thread’s exhibition ‘Spirit of Place’ from 6th-16th of June 2024 at Sullington Manor Farm, Sullington Lane, Storrington, West Sussex, RH20 4AE

Liz Howlett - Blonde

Sue Norgrove-Moore - Silver

Sue Duncan - Celadon Colours from Sotheby

Alison Livesley - Minium orange