Color: Natural and One Accent, and I'll Admit That's Deborah's Department
Okay. You've got a layout sketched. Now we've got to talk color, and I want to be honest with you up front, this is not my strong suit. I can tie you any knot in this course clean and even. Ask me why a rust orange works next to natural cotton and not next to bleached white and I'll just look at you.
That part's Deborah's department. Always has been.
So here's what I do, since I still have to pick colors even without the eye for it. I keep it simple enough that I can't mess it up too bad. Natural cord, undyed, the color it comes off the spool. Then one accent color, used sparingly. That's it. Two colors, one of them barely there.
Why natural first
Natural cotton cord goes with the wall it's hanging on, the shelf under it, whatever room you stick it in. It doesn't fight anything. If you're not confident about color, natural is the safe move and it still looks intentional, not like you were avoiding a decision. Because you kind of are, and that's fine.
Picking the one accent
This is where people overthink it. You don't need five colors to make something interesting. One accent color, used in maybe ten to twenty percent of the piece, does more work than you'd think. A rust cord running through two rows. A dusty blue at the fringe ends. A handful of diagonal lines in a color that's not the background.
How to pick it: look at the room it's going in. Not the trend, not what looks good in the craft store lighting, which is nothing like your house. Bring a scrap of the accent cord home if you can and hold it up against the wall at the time of day the piece will actually hang. Morning light and evening light do different things to color, and this valley's dry air makes everything look a little starker than you'd expect too, so what glows warm in the store can go flat and pale at home.
If you've got somebody in your life with an eye for this, and I mean an actual eye, not just an opinion, ask them. I'm not too proud to say I do.
The first hanging I ever finished
I'll tell you what happened with mine. First one I ever finished, I hung it in the front room, feeling pretty good about myself. Deborah looked at it a long minute, didn't say anything right away, which if you know her means she's building up to it. Finally she said the fringe was crooked.
It was crooked. I hadn't even seen it. But that's the thing about color and finishing touches both, somebody with a trained eye sees things you walk right past. I left it up anyway. It's still up. Crooked fringe and all these years later I don't even notice it anymore, and neither does she, mostly.
Point is, don't let not having the eye stop you from finishing the thing. Get it close, hang it, live with it. You'll notice what you notice and nobody's grading you.
Practical steps if you're picking cord this week
- Buy your main cord in natural first. That's your base, get enough of it, more than the pattern math says because you'll want extra for fringe.
- Pick one accent color you actually like, not one you think you're supposed to like.
- Buy less accent cord than you think. A little goes further than you'd expect once it's woven into a mostly-natural piece.
- Cotton, not the poly blend. I've said this before and I'll keep saying it. The synthetic slips in your knots and squeaks while you're working it, and it doesn't take color as honestly either. Cotton holds the dye better and holds the knot better.
- If you're torn between two accent colors, pick the quieter one. You can always add more later. Taking accent color out once it's tied in is a lot more work than adding it.
One caution, plain and simple: if you're dyeing cord yourself instead of buying it pre-colored, do it somewhere ventilated and don't do it in a pot you're going to cook in again. Some dyes are food safe, plenty aren't, and it's not worth guessing.
Before next time
Pick your natural cord and your one accent, and if you've got someone around with a good eye for color, don't be too proud to ask them, like I finally learned to do.