Search this Blog for anything you thought you might have seen here.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Transitions No 2. OYG!

Remember my first post about my Rainbow Bright Transitions. A month and a half ago ROY turned into Flame Lantana and wowed you all. Well it wowed me!!

Finally OYG is finished!(Orange,Yellow,Green).

Just in case you don't remember and haven't looked at my ROY post....this is what it is all about.
Take 3 adjacent colours from Rainbow Bright...exactly as they are....dye a 15 yds skein, tat up a heart and some butterflies......look at it critically.....to see what does it remind me of.......look for photos to inspire me.......and then decide what I should do to make it into a WOW!!

SIMPLE isn't it!!!

Well it's much more fun....and if it isn't fun then I don't do it.....with IsDihara testing and looking up what it reminds her of.....even if I do tend to go with the idea I first thought of!!

So what did my first tatting look like!!
Well I thought that it looked promising..but what did it remind me of??
Our first thoughts were citrus...oranges and lemons....well at least something tropical.
But the green was wrong for citrus leaves. Looking at it I could see that Rainbow Bright Green had drifted and become a blue green..that happens sometimes..I will correct that.
That blue green can also be seen in Rainbow 'Lite' Sweet Shop...but I actually quite like it as the' lite' green looks like mint and is edible!!

After we dismissed Citrus the next thing to explode into my mind was Daffodils...it just shouted Spring at us.....and we needed Spring!!
Off to the internet for us to find Daffodils to see if I was right.....lots of gorgeous images....one of them appealed to me so much that the name of the thread was born.



I couldn't get this beautiful image out of my mind, two badgers drinking at a little pond with a host of Daffodils behind them. What could be more idyllic. I also noticed that the foliage was a blue green....Daffodils really are like that.
I also chanced upon this site.....a little village with woods that were named Daffodil Dell. It was even more nostalgic for me as it was very near, less than a dozen miles from where that I lived as a teenager and is where my son will be getting married later this year.

So I set my heart on finding a Daffodil Dell to photograph and to bring it to life in thread.
But Spring was still not Sprung and there was not a Daffodil to be seen.
I had to bring my Daffodils to life from memory...and then go out and see if I was right.

My very favourite ones are those with a orange trumpet...and the Narcissi which have creamy petals and an orange trumpet....in my garden they flower after the main golden Daffodils have finished.
Finally this last week....Daffodils were out in all their glory.
The first one to catch my eye was close to where I live. Gosh..and I only had my camera phone with me.

Last week we went on a trip to Northern Ireland and my passion was to find my Daffodil Dell.....or at least lots of different Daffodils.
Oh there were Daffodils in abundance, I only had eyes for them.....do please excuse my enthusiasm and all these photos.
First there were the dwarf Daffodil/Narcissus Tete รก Tete with a long trumpet and backward facing petals, and really tiny.
What could be more perfect for a Daffodil fanatic's Tatting Tea Tuesday than a Cup Of Miniature Daffodils.
Then there were the beautiful large creamy petals with a short filly lemon trumpet.....
  
...the large showy golden daffodils with a long trumpet....

Still searching for my imagined Daffodil Dell this was the nearest that I got ....a beautiful woodland planting in a country estate garden.
But what did I spy in there....but the most intense orange Daffodil that I have ever seen....
...golden petals...short frilly trumpet.
Back home my garden was coming to life ...and an orange Daffodil that I had forgotten about...
with a longer trumpet in much more subdued colours. This really shows what I was trying to achieve. You can see the subtle change of colour with the orange getting paler and paler until it blends with the golden yellow.
On the trip we bought miniature Narcissii for the garden....this one is called 'Jetfire'..backward facing petals and a long medium orange trumpet.

This all gives me a much clearer impression of what I want to achieve......a gradation from a rich orange.....lighter until it becomes a golden orange...turning to golden yellow...through to a more buttercup yellow....getting lighter until it blends into a light green and finally a rich dark green.

For my second trial of OYG I used a new pot of dye...a ready made orange to give a bit of zing.....tatted some butterflies and LadyShuttlemaker's Hope butterfly....
...... while it does look nice in the tiny butterflies....I took an immediate dislike to the orange for my masterpiece!!  The green was not what I wanted either. The green in the Hope butterfly for the chains is a Flora mid green.....I really like that, so I decided to make that green for my Daffodil Dell.
What works best for me is to keep the number of basic colours to a minimum and mix all my colours from them...then they are sure to harmonise.
By trial 4 I had exactly what I wanted. IsDihara can tell you how much I agonise about getting it just right.
So ta da...drum roll
here is
Daffodil Dell

Compare it with my original test piece....


....and Daffodil Dell just zings with umph!
When we got home, I potted up my miniature Daffodil/Narcissi purchases into a hedgerow basket of willow...made when that was my one of my passions.
So a good test of Daffodil Dell would be to see how it looks among real Daffodils!

I LOVE IT!!
Warning...this thread is BRIGHT!


One more thing.
It occurred to me that while Daffodil Dell is a stand alone thread....that there may be times when I wanted to put it with a green thread for my chains to represent the foliage.
Therefore I wouldn't want dark green in my varig thread.

So I designed another thread with just the flower colours, it goes through the colours to a very pale lime green so is still OYG!....and is called.....
Just Daffodils.
I tatted Julie Pattersons design in it with Flora Green for the contrast.
I LOVE THIS ONE TOO!
Let's see this one among the Daffodils ....


Last but not least... I tatted Jon Yusoff's Heart 'O Daisies again in Just Daffodils and Flora.



WOW!
Spring is here in Tatskool land!

17 comments:

  1. I LOVE Daffodil Dell! Our daffodils are in bloom here at school (I don't have any planted at home...yet), and I was just thinking the other day that the colors would make a perfect HDT combo. Leave it to you! You've done a wonderful job!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lovely colorway! Love hearing how you came up with it too!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks Diane, I have never seen so many Daffodils as there are this year...is it just that i am looking for them or is it because spring is so late that all of a sudden they are all out?

    Thanks Gina, know you know how my mind works!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Paula C said:

    Thank you so much for sharing your design process with us. I find it very interesting and inspirational. I really love daffodils =)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Wow! Even though I was "in on" the OYG trials, your post blows me away. Both "Just Daffodils" and "Daffodil Dell" are marvelous colorways. Perfect for Spring! And spilling over with hope, just like the flowers!

    I wouldn't be surprised if these HDTs become favorites for tatters who participate in or otherwise support the American Cancer Society's Daffodil Days.

    Just sayin'.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I LOVE it! The daffodil is in my top three favorite flowers ever. Bright is good, I love bright thread!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Fox said:
    Beautiful spring colours all.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Love Daffodil Dell what stunning colours!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  9. I love your posts when you walk us through the process used to come up with the thread colors. Very inspiring. And a lot of fun to read too!

    ReplyDelete
  10. This is gorgeous! And I'm a big daffodil fan.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Just love it that you keep coming up with bright surprises; like daffodils poking their heads up in the spring. xx bj

    ReplyDelete
  12. Oooh, looking at the final Daffodil Dell next to the original, after all those little steps, you have reached perfection!

    ReplyDelete
  13. I love, love reading this post. Thank you so much for sharing the process. Both colorways are so pretty and refreshing. You have been busy!!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Carol L said:

    Sweet color HDT! You did an excellent job capturing the beauty of the Daffodil. I very much enjoyed all the photos of Daffodils you added here. Brightened up my morning! I really like the bookmark on the Daffodils. Nice Job!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Wow that was a super response. You are right IsDihara they would be perfect for the Cancer society Daffodil day, we have it here too.

    I thought you might all just skip thro all the photos wondering when i was going to get to the point!
    Its my new favourite. Dyeing more again today.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Bonnie said:
    Oh my gosh! are you serious?! Daffodils are my favorite flowers! In fact last weekend, I just planted a whole bunch more of them to line our driveway. I promised myself, no more HDT until I've used up at least 5 of the skeins I already have (I'm obsessed!) but I HAVE TO HAVE some Just Daffodils. I love love love it. Once again you've got a winner on your hands.

    ReplyDelete

I love your comments they keep me blogging.
Every comment is much appreciated, but please try not to use my real name in a comment or on your blog. Tatskool is my on line name and one that I really like. Thanks.