Finally its here! "Colour the theory and the practise in flower arranging." A world exclusive to floralartmall.com, this fabulous CD has 12 essential lessons on colour theory with floral lessons to try, plus Itten's theory explained the easy way! This CD is the basic requirement for any floral designer wantng to explore colour. More details here
Featured on this page are Colour harmonies:  near complementary, polychromatic, split complementary, tetradic and triadic colour harmonies.To find more on achromatic, adjacent, analogous, analogous complementary, direct complementary, double complemetary and monochromatic, click here.

Colour Harmonies Near complementary, polychromatic, split complementary, tetradic and triadic colour harmonies.Does that all sound like a foreign language?	We will look at 5 of the 12 colour harmonies to make it clearer but remember these are rules that are just waiting to be broken! Grab your colour wheel and let's begin!
Near complementary Two colours adjacent on the colour wheel-almost! One of the colours is immediately beside the direct opposite Therefore if green and red are directly opposite, you would use red and  yellow green, or red and blue green. Get it? It all becomes clear with a colour wheel! Therefore orange/red has an opposite of blue/green, go over one and you get to blue. You see this in the workshop design on the right, using persimmons, orange rope and blue hydrangesa.	More on the free lesson from this workshop with Carol Rains here
Polychromatic The balanced use of many colours together	This example cames from Paris, in a large outdoor trough by the river Seine. This and two flower filled  urns marked the steps down to a boat filled with a wedding party.

Split complementary. Two colours opposite on the color wheel- Now replace one of those colours with those either side of it on the colour wheel.There are your 3 colours! So take green the opposite is red, go either side and use red violet and red orange! The example on the right is  from a floral theatre by Carla Barbaglia. She used red/orange heliconias, and red/violet rolled leaves of the phornium flax, with the green of the Ligularia leaves. For more from Carla and her free floral theatre, click here

Tetradic Four colours lying eqidistant on the colour wheel~ thats every third colour from any starting point on the wheel. Michelle uses this combination in the design on the right, which is featured in her new book,"Perceptions"  She also features a very good section on colour and colour harmonies The design uses violet, yellow, red/orange and blue/green (almost) and is typical of Michelle's innovative designs.

Triadic Three colours that lie equidistant  on the colour wheel` that's every 4th colour on the wheel.

This is the work of Paula Pryke and is featured in her book "Festive Flowers" available here She uses the 3 equidistant colours of violet, orange (oranges are a little hidden) and green and then adds touches of red violet as well! When you are a top English designer you can break the rules, and do it so well! Paula's book  I recommend to you if you want step by step instructions, inspiring full colour photos and ideas that are modern and absolutely gorgeous! For reviews, pricing and to order, click here

 

floral design magazine Learn each month as you analyse the designs of top international florists and floral designers. Hundreds of photographs including close ups will show you the way the experts use colour!More...

Festive Flowers by Paula Pryke Stunning! Parties, weddings, births, christenings, christmas, gifts, you'll find step by step instructions for clean, modern designs that are gorgeous and easy to try! Every time I open this glossy full colour book I want to try out another idea. Check out the reviews, price and ordering here