Thursday 29 October 2015

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.


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.



11 comments:

  1. blue is my favourite colour. water and sky. never the same blue twice. x

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  2. I'm laughing about the hair, I hope it didn't last too long. I don't like royal blue either, too much of a bright primary colour. But the softer and the darker blues - wonderful. Your photos are absolutely gorgeous, they really look fantastic all together. CJ xx

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  3. I quite liked Joan Jett back in the days :-)
    Blue is such a comfortable colour, it has grown on me a lot over the years. I don't like royal blue either. It feels on my eyes like I imagine a punch would feel on my nose. x

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  4. Now I come to think about it, there is a lot of blue in my wardrobe too - ranging from denim to bright turquoise and with quite a lot of navy and white stripes thrown in too. Looking forward to photos of your new house. Ours is mainly white with occasional grey. Soothing and easy to live with, but sometimes I think a bit of bold colour would be good.

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  5. I enjoy thinking about the way a color runs through my life. I did something similar when we wrote about red. I think that if I thought about blue in my own life, I'd include some of the same things you mentioned, along with: the first coat I remember wearing, a Care Bear with storm clouds on his belly, my first boyfriend's eyes, a velvet dress I wore to a college dance, the sudden houseful of blue clothes and blankets when I had a baby boy.

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  6. I love blue and liked reading your memories of it in your life. Blue skies, blue jeans and blue hair :-) I saw a girl in Canterbury today with turquoise hair piled on top of her head. You'd be able to pick her out in a crowd.

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  7. Funnily enough I have the same reaction to Royal blue, it's as though something in the wavelength upsets my equilibrium, my aversion is mildly visceral.

    Brilliant images ... a couple of those skies, wow!

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  8. I love blue, but only for clothes until I got a blue bedroom fancy recently! Denim blue yes, many other blues yes, but like you, not royal blue! I wonder if we see it as an old lady colour for some reason? I am going to reply to your comment, but want to do it when I can reply properly. Hugs to you in the meantime! xx

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  9. Your collages and memories helped me appreciate blue from many perspectives...and consider what blue appeals to me least...I'm not very fond of the blues in bruises! xx

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  10. Your collages are gorgeous! The first thing I think of with blue is Cornishware pottery, with it's classic utilitarian style. I like that blue, but in very small amounts. I too am chuckling at your home hair dye escapades - the last time I dyed my own hair resulted in an emergency (and very expensive) trip to a salon in Leeds to sort it out, dear god it was horrific! :-) xx

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  11. You have put together such beautiful images! I've visited your blog many times before, and I always enjoy that lovely "quiet moment" you seem to have here. :)

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