The Colour Collaborative: October: Blue

Blue isn't one of my 'favourite' colours; I'm usually attracted to greys or creams with the odd splash of mustard yellow here and there. And yet there's plenty of blue in my wardrobe. Granted, much of that's in the form of denim. But there are navy fisherman's sweaters and a midnight-hued silk dress, a teal ruffle-fronted blouse and an inky sweater with a Scandinavian-style patterned yoke. Oh, and a few failed attempts at Shibori dyeing. Much as I love indigo it seems I'll never recreate some of those lovely scarves I've seen online.

A few rooms in the new house are blue as well. Joe's bedroom is a soft, silvery blue whilst the kitchen's just been painted in a stormy shade (reminiscent of the skies pictured in the top right photo, above). And while I'm on the subject of interiors... I do like blue ceramics and vases. Particularly those in deeper, richer shades.

I went back through some of my archives for this month's Colour Collaborative post. It made me think of 'blue' memories: school uniforms (both primary and secondary); ink-stained fingers and desk lids. The old Ford Fiesta my mum and brother shared (which started out pale metallic blue and was later resprayed a darker colour), then its successor the Vauxhall Nova which was an alarming shade of turquoise but could always be spotted in a busy car park.

My childhood bedding was homemade, blue and white striped cotton with a look of ticking to it. My plump grey pony had blue everything: headcollar and lead rope, grooming kit, blankets. My riding hat was covered in deepest blue velvet which gradually faded to a soft grey. Probably something to do with me chucking it into the bushes once I was out of the stable yard, only to retrieve it on my return from the moors (until the local gossip told my mum she'd seen me out riding bareheaded).

I remember, as a grown up, holiday blues. The incredible cerulean seas of the Greek islands, doorways and domes in the brightest cobalt shades. And that ferry trip on the magically-named 'Flying Cloud' from a dark, storm-battered Boston across the Nantucket Sound, where the clouds suddenly parted to reveal skies a dazzling cornflower colour. 

What else? Eartha Kitt singing Santa Baby, requesting a '54 convertible too, light blue'. My old butcher's apron. Denim jackets. The jeans I wore as a twelve year old (Falmer 'Kitten' or 'Betty') then, as I got older, Levi 501s with a button fly. (It was all about following the crowd). Later still, dyeing my hair the wrong colour then going in to work with it an awful blue-black shade and my boss saying, 'Bloody hell! It's Joan Jett.'

I like kingfisher blue, robin's egg blue, deep dark hues of midnight. Lately I've seen a few front doors painted a rather lovely shade which reminds me of Cornishware pottery. The only blue I have a real aversion to: royal blue. No idea why...

So, a piecemeal approach to this month's theme. Scrapbook collages and random memories, a few likes and dislikes. But with a sapphire, peacock or denim thread running through them all.

Don't forget to visit the other Colour Collaborative blogs for more of this month's posts, just click on the links below.

Annie Cholewa

Sandra at Cherry Heart

Gillian at Tales from a Happy House

CJ at Above the River

Jennifer at Thistlebear

What is The Colour Collaborative?

All creative bloggers make stuff, gather stuff, shape stuff, and share stuff. Mostly they work on their own, but what happens when a group of them work together? Is a creative collaboration greater than the sum of its parts? We think so and we hope you will too. We'll each be offering our own monthly take on a colour related theme, and hoping that in combination our ideas will encourage us, and perhaps you, to think about colour in new ways.