Color Theory for Textile Projects
A course by Karen BarbéEmbroidery Artist and Designer
A course by Karen Barbé, Embroidery Artist and Designer
Learn to create color palettes for your embroidery
Much like design, the colors you choose in embroidery make all the difference, which is why it is essential to find the right color combinations for your textile projects. No one knows this better than Karen Barbé, designer and embroiderer with more than a decade of experience. She has spent much of her career teaching color theory in embroidery and has become an expert in the field, having published a book on the subject titled Color Confident Stitching: How to Create Beautiful Color Palettes.
In this online course, Karen teaches you to create the ideal color palette for any textile project, emphasizing the expressive power of colors as well as how they behave and interact with one another. Take your embroidery to the next level by learning how to make a color plan for your designs and confidently stitch vibrant works of art.
What will you learn in this online course?
13 lessons & 14 downloads
Materials for this course
3 minutes, 12 seconds
Construction of colored thread cards
7 minutes, 4 seconds
And where is the rest of the colors?
11 minutes, 49 seconds
Color palettes: the atmosphere of a meeting of colors
9 minutes, 5 seconds
Creating a color palette
14 minutes, 39 seconds
From the color palette to embroidery. Case study.
13 minutes, 31 seconds
What's included in this course?
Start the course by getting to know Karen Barbé and her work as she talks through her professional career and shares her biggest influences.
Continue with the basic concepts of color theory and its related terminology, using your teacher's personal glossary as a guide.
Study the color wheel and learn how to work with the RYB model, choosing the most suitable combinations for each project through a series of color harmony exercises.
Then, create a set of colored thread cards and experiment with a variety of schemes to produce different feelings or moods.
To round out the course, Karen shows you her approach to building color palettes and how she applies them to her embroidery projects.
What is this course's project?
Design a color palette for an embroidery project using the concepts you've learned throughout the course.
Projects by course students
Who is this online course for?
Embroidery and design enthusiasts who want to learn how to create the perfect color palettes for their textile projects.
Requirements and materials
No prior knowledge is necessary to take this course.
As for materials, you need colored paper or paint samples, a cutting surface, a metal ruler, cardboard, a utility knife, colored markers, a glue stick, a tape measure, double-sided tape, and embroidery thread.
Reviews
- 17 days ago
Aprendí muchísimo!
- 1 month ago
Hermoso curso. La profesora es una genia. ¡Gracias!
- 1 month ago
Simple concepts, easy to understand ideas. I found it very helpful in working with yarns.
- 1 month ago
To mój pierwszy kurs o kolorach i czuję, że już wiem więcej. Bardzo żałuję, że nie mam palety dmc, bo używam od lat Ariadny, ale jeśli ktoś ma lub planuje kupić to stworzy sobie naprawdę bardzo dobre palety kolorów. Prowadząca z pasją i ciepłem. Ja nie żałuję zakupy, choć przyznaję, nie było łatwo:)
- 1 month ago
El curso es súper interesante tiene muchas posibilidades y KAREN lo explica, se nota que lo vive y disfruta. Un placer escucharla
Karen learned to embroider, knit, and sew from her mother starting at a young age, skills that have led her to work in the retail and marketing industry, as well as teach university-level classes to students studying design. In 2015, she earned a certificate in hand embroidery from the Royal School of Needlework in the UK. From her studio in Santiago, Chile, Karen teaches her students how to embroider and create color palettes while constantly experimenting with new embroidery designs and patterns in her personal projects.
Content
- U1
Introduction
- Presentation
- Influences
- U2
Understand the colors
- Materials for this course
- Panorama (glossary)
- Chromatic circle: the place where colors live
- Construction of colored thread cards
- And where is the rest of the colors?
- U3
Combine colors and create palettes
- Harmonies of color: the ways that colors have to converse with each other
- Creating a color harmony
- Color palettes: the atmosphere of a meeting of colors
- Creating a color palette
- U4
Apply the colors in the embroidery
- Color plan
- From the color palette to embroidery. Case study.
- FP
Final project
- Theory of color for embroidery
What to expect from a Domestika course
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FAQs
You’ll learn how to build and combine color palettes, use the color wheel, create thread cards, apply color harmonies, and develop color portfolios to enhance your textile and embroidery projects.
This course is designed for intermediate learners—perfect for those with basic experience in embroidery or textile design who want to deepen their understanding of color theory and combinations.
You’ll need DMC embroidery threads, cardboard thread cards, colored paper, scissors, rulers, double-sided tape, mechanical pencils, printed templates, and a craft cutting surface.
The color wheel helps you identify primary, secondary, and tertiary colors, making it easier to create harmonious combinations and select balanced palettes for your textile designs.
Thread cards are holders where you organize thread samples by color, allowing you to easily see, select, and mix shades for your embroidery and textile projects.
You should choose colors based on temperature, contrast, and saturation, arrange samples on cards or portfolios, and experiment with combinations until you find the perfect harmony for your textile design.
The course covers techniques for combining colors in embroidery, applying color harmonies, organizing threads, and adapting palettes to different stitch types and layouts.