Color Works: The Crafter's Guide to Color

Deb Menz's Color Works is about color combination. There are numerous illustrations of theory and practice. The pages of samples showing several mediums makes the book for me. The same color on yarn, fabric, seed beads, or paper has a different resonance. The text illustrates how color/medium combinations "can be dramatic or theatrical." The examples push the reader to consider alternative color choices. Goethe's color theory of relative proportions is convincingly illustrated. Deb Menz offers practical methods to add more colors (hexad harmony) while avoiding a rainbow look. There's plenty to retrain the eye and mind.

Color theory can be difficult to understand let alone put to use. This book not only explains color theory in an easy to follow manner but also includes photographs of samples in 9 different craft areas to illustrate each topic. The samples include knitting, quilting, beading, paper and weaving. Each medium adds it own twist to the "rules" so seeing an example is worth a thousand words. The portion on value is very good as the role of a colors value is often overlooked. The value principles are also illustrated with real materials. The color wheel and color chips helps one put all the information to use. This book is both a guide and a tool.

Wonderful book! There's probaby more than I'll ever need to know about color theory in this book, but I love it for giving me the confidence to dye and combine colors I would have never thought of combining. I've read other reviewers complain about the difficulty of the punch-out reference pages in the back of the book, but that's easily solved by using an exacto knife and about 5 minutes. The results are worth it and the book is all the info you'll ever need to forge ahead and combine colors for whatever application you need.

This book is one of the most valuable resources I've ever seen regarding color. The book is more than just a book--it is a tool to be used and referred to often. I am particularly impressed with its scope in that it can be used by all fiber artists as well as bead artists. The book also has been designed by a practical person. First of all, it lays flat. Second it has pockets at the back so that the removable parts can be saved easily after working with them. The photography is superb and the printing is outstanding. I felt like I could almost pluck the examples off the page! Finally, Deb's writing is concise and to the point. No wading through tiresome text. For the price it is the best bargain in the fiber field today. This one will be a classic!

Needless to say, Deb Menz is one of my favorite fiber teachers of all time. And her last book, Color in Spinning, will always be the tool that turned me onto color gungho. This one, furthered my color education and opened my eyes to the endless possibilities of the color and hue spectrum. It even has a color wheel, value scale, hue family colors, and color harmony overlays! I highly recommend this book as a must have tool for any fiber person. I think it will be wonderful for many people just getting into design who haven't had formal theory classes or the opportunity to take a lot of color theory or dyeing classes. Deb does a great job covering how color theory affects a variety of mediums: spinning, knitting, weaving, beading, quilting, needlepoint and embroidery techniques.