Exciting news today, as we have just heard from our Glasgow printer that Colour at Work is about to be published! Pre-orders will close this weekend, so if you would like a copy of our brand new title with FREE shipping (to anywhere in the world) please place your order now, and your book will ship next week.
I’ve researched and written a few new essays for the book, including an (ahem) rather lavishly illustrated piece about the history and representation of that most persuasive of chromatic objects – the colour wheel.
Why are ideas about colour so often presented to us in this familiar circular form?
Just what is it about a colour wheel that makes it so very appealing to the eye?
How, at different historic moments, have colour wheels been used to organise different kinds of knowledge?
Which ideas, which ideologies, might colour wheels be trying to sell to us?
How, through time, have colour wheels attempted to contain and classify the world’s confusing chromatic variety?
Read Colour at Work to discover many more colour wheels and find out more about them!
This chapter was a genuine pleasure for me to research and write because I really love colour wheels, and I wanted to think about exactly why that might be. I spent about a month looking at, reading about, and dreaming of colour wheels and all I can say is that doing this research, and knowing more about the history and purpose of these fascinating objects has only intensified their aesthetic pleasure for me.
Don’t all knitters love colour wheels, samplers and shade cards? I haven’t yet met one who doesn’t! And if you too are a shade card fan, then I just have to mention this brand new book in which I suspect you may be interested.
Recently translated and now available in a new English edition, Anne Varichon’s book is a gorgeous exploration of the histories and purposes of shade cards of all kinds, from the early modern period to today.
Over 284 pages and 355 beautifully illustrated examples, Varichon explores how colour samples and shade cards have been used to classify and sell paints and pigments, yarns and fabrics, feathers and haberdashery trims, cosmetics, inks, dyes – and even different types of veal.
The illustrations are glorious, of course, but Varichon’s carefully researched and lyrically written text is a great read too, exploring the many different ways in which, over the centuries, shade cards continue to “evoke wonder” and posess a unique “aesthetic power and ability to appeal to the imagination.” There’s even an Angela Merkel shade card.
Highly recommended for shade card obsessives of all kinds, Varichon’s book has just been published with Princeton University Press, and don’t forget that Colour at Work is about to be published by . . . .us! ( free shipping closes this weekend!)
Thank you all so much for your kind wishes about the mill. We are enjoying everything about it. I promise to show you the interior, in time!
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This is a nice coincidence ! When I saw the announcement of the new book a few weeks ago and the topic of this post today, I thought about Anne Varichon’s book, “Nuanciers : éloge du subtil” and wondered if you could read french as I thought you would love it :-) I was about to send you the details, so I am delighted to see it is available in english and that you like it too :D It is an amazing book, a treasure for sure, and I look forward to get my copy of “colour at work” too.
It’s a wonderful book, Claire!
I am so keen to purchase an actual colour card to hang as art in my home. Anyone have any good leads on particularly beautiful ones …. and where to purchase them?
The Pattern Book produces an attractive range of greetings cards on the theme of colour theory: https://thepatternbook.co.uk/product-category/colour-theory/. I found some of these, by chance, in a local bookshop yesterday.
The book still shows out of stock. Frankly, I’m not surprised because it happened with preorders of another book. I guess y’all don’t realize how popular your books and other items are. Can’t do it without the sweetener.
having published 25 books before this one, we are well experienced in planning ahead – but these things still sometimes take us by surprise. We’ll be printing the second edition soon.
So sad it is out of stock. Will there be another opportunity to purchase?
We are arranging the reprint now, Joy – yesterdays large preorder numbers were completely unexpected, and took us by surprise
Congratulations on your beautiful new home – wish you many years of health and happiness
Color wheels are definitely alluring. The hand painted qualities you have chosen to show us in your news letter are exquisite. I believe there is a more universal attraction to many of these images in addition to the subject matter. Many are circles presented on a square shape: an archetypal image Carl Jung talks about in his writing. The circle in a square is found in every culture in art and architecture, is acknowledged to be soothing to the human spirit, and formed one of the mandala forms Jung used to demonstrate his belief in “the collective unconscious”, which connects all of us across time and space.
Hello — it looks like pre-orders have closed? I get an out of stock message when trying to place an ROW order. It is March 1 now, so perhaps I missed the deadline. Will the book be available for regular orders soon?
temporary glitch today, Lee – it’s back in stock and will be so until Sunday!
Ah, I didn’t get back to try again until today, and now you definitely are sold out. Congratulations on a successful first run! I will definitely pay attention to when it is back in stock.
I am so excited for Colour at Work! I find something very soothing about a color wheel (especially the more complex ones). My eyes want to keep traveling from one shade to the next, pausing along the way to absorb the colors that are calling me at the moment. Thank you for this!
I love color charts, too, and can hardly wait to read that chapter in our book. :)
Oooooh my! In our spinning group, We started our year of colour last year with colour wheels, and they kind of took over! I can say from experience that they are addictive to blend and spin – I made three! They seem so contained and comprehensive, but that is so deceptive. Can’t wait to read your book!
” . . . contained and comprehensive, but that is so deceptive . . . ” exactly!!